The floods in northwest Pakistan killed more than 220 people in the last 48 hours, said on Saturday, while the rescuers pulled 63 additional bodies during the night of houses flattened by sudden floods and landslides.
Pakistan has received higher monsoon precipitation than normal this year, triggering floods and mud shifts that have killed more than 540 people since June 26, according to the National Disaster Management Authority.
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A resident told AFP that the sudden floods looked like “the end of the world” while the ground trembled with the strength of water.
“I heard a loud noise as if the mountain slipped. I rushed outside and I saw the whole area tremble, as if it was the end of the world,” said Azizullah.
“The ground was trembling due to the strength of the water, and it felt like death looked at me in the face.”
Hundreds of rescuers are still looking for survivors in Buner, one of the many places in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where torrential rains and cloud disorders caused massive floods on Friday, said Mohammad Suhail, spokesperson for emergency services. Dozens of houses have been swept away.
The first speakers tried to recover the bodies of the most affected villages of Pir Baba and Malik Pura, where most of the deaths were, said Kashif Qayyum, deputy commissioner in Buner.
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Local policeman Imtiaz Khan, who narrowly escaped the floods, said that flood waters carrying hundreds of rocks hit and flattened houses in a few minutes.
“A stream near the village of Pir Baba in Buner swelled without warning.
“Our police station was also swept away, and if we had not climbed on higher ground, we would not have survived.”
The rescuers said they had seen large expanses from the village of Pir Baba destroyed, destroyed houses and giant rocks filling the streets while the water was starting to retreat.
“It was not only flood waters, it was also a flood of rocks, which we saw for the first time in our life,” said Sultan Syed, 45, who suffered a broken arm.
Mohammad Khan, 53, said that the floods “came so quickly that many could not leave their house.”
Most of the victims died before reaching the hospital, said Mohammad Tariq, a doctor in Buner. “Many among the dead were children and men, while women were absent in the hills that collect firewood and pasture cattle,” he said.
The mourning people attended mass funeral on Saturday, while the authorities provided tents and food to people affected by Buner floods.
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Local cleric Mufti Fazal said he had directed funeral prayers in several places since Friday morning. “Before yesterday’s floods, the region was animated by life. Now there is sorrow and sorrow everywhere.”
The school teacher Suleman Khan lost 25 members of his extended family, saying that he and his brother had only survived because they were far from their home when the floods hit his village, Qadar Nagar.
According to the province of disaster management, at least 351 people died in rainy incidents this week in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and in the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region.
Nearly 300 kilometers (about 186 miles) in the cashmere controlled by the Indians, the rescuers traveled the distant village of Chositi in the Kishtwar district on Saturday, in search of dozens of disappeared people after being struck by sudden floods two days ago, killing 60 and injuring 150, around 50 in critical condition.
Thursday’s floods struck during an annual Hindu pilgrimage in the region. Authorities have rescued more than 300 people, while some 4,000 pilgrims have been evacuated to security.
These cloud explosions are increasingly common in the Himalayan regions of India and the regions of northern Pakistan, and the experts said that climate change is a contributing factor.
Pakistani officials said that rescuers since Thursday had evacuated more than 3,500 tourists trapped in areas affected by floods across the country.
Many travelers have ignored government warnings to avoid vulnerable regions in the north and northwest.
Pakistan witnessed his worst Mousson season in 2022. He killed more than 1,700 people and caused around 40 billion dollars.
