Floods, rain kill over 60 in Pakistan

Floods and heavy rain have killed more than 60 people and left some 200,000 homeless in the south-western Pakistani province of Baluchistan, officials and police say.

Hundreds of villages were inundated in at least 10 districts, affecting 1.5 million people, with 90 per cent of crops, cattle and houses destroyed in some areas, relief commissioner Ali Gul Kurd said.

"At least 54 people have died in the past six days, 30 of them in Turbat district alone where many villages were submerged under more than three feet of water," he said.

A tropical cyclone, Yemyin, struck coastal areas in Baluchistan and southern Sindh province last Tuesday and was followed by heavy rain.

The storm and downpours had left around 200,000 homeless, Mr Kurd added, warning that the casualty figures could rise as dozens of people had been reported missing.

Police said four more people, including a woman and her three children, were killed when their house collapsed in Machh early on Sunday.

Five other people were killed when they were swept away by heavy water and two others were crushed to death when the roof of their house caved in due to heavy rain in Bela district, local mayor Naseer Ahmed said.

Navy boats, helicopters and aircraft were taking items like food, tents, blankets and medicines to affected areas, including the coastal towns of Gwadar, Pasni and Ormara, Kurd said.

Improved weather on Sunday had allowed the relief operation to get into full swing, provincial chief minister Owais Ghani said.

"There are fears of another heavy spell of rain in coming days and we want to rush food and other relief goods to as many people as possible before any other calamity hits the province," he told reporters.

- AFP