Landslides kill 22 in northwest Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, July 8 (Reuters) Landslides killed 22 villagers and destroyed houses in a remote mountainous part of northwest Pakistan today, a police official said.

The landslides, triggered by heavy overnight rain, also blocked a two km (1.25 mile) stretch of the Karakoram highway that links Pakistan to China as it passes through the Kohistan region of North West Frontier Province.

Women and children were among the dead in the stricken villages. Thirteen people were injured, five critically.

REUTERS PD KP1647