Islamabad, July 5 (EFE).- At least 11 people were killed and another 14 wounded on Wednesday in several incidents across Pakistan’s two most populated provinces as incessant rains have been lashing the country.
Seven people were killed in the city of Lahore in the eastern Punjab province due to unprecedented rains in the region, the interim chief minister of the state, Mohsin Naqvi, said Wednesday.
Another person died by drowning in the city of Layyah, while at least six were seriously wounded in various incidents triggered by the rain, according to the provincial disaster management authority of Punjab.
“Lahore received rainfall of 291 mm today, which is a record,” Naqvi told reporters during his visit to various areas affected by urban flooding, which caused road closures.
The northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province registered at least three deaths due to falling trees, the provincial disaster management authority said in a statement.
“Eight people were injured, seven houses were partially damaged while one house was completely damaged,” it added.
The Pakistan meteorological department (PMD) had warned in the beginning of this week that heavy monsoon rains could lash Islamabad and other major cities such as Lahore or Peshawar, situated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Due to this, additional emergency teams have been deployed in the country’s most vulnerable areas, as the rains are expected to continue until Saturday, according to the latest PMD bulletin.
Last year between June and October, Pakistan witnessed its worst floods since 2010, resulting in the death of over 1,700 people and more than a million heads of livestock.
As many as eight million people were displaced and the total number of affected population stood at 33 million, or one-seventh of the population of world’s 5th most populated nation.
International bodies have estimated that donations worth $16.3 billion would be required over the next three years to help reconstruction work in the areas devastated by the floods, even as Pakistan is in the middle of a severe economic crisis. EFE
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