Pakistan's army have been called out for rescue operations after torrential rains and flooding displaced thousands of people in north Pakistan.
Army helicopters dropped food packages and water bottles to thousands of marooned residents of the northwestern Chitral valley on Tuesday, where surging floods have caused widespread destruction. More than two dozen bridge have been washed away, isolating the valley from rest of the country.
The Information Minister for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Mushtaq Ghani told reporters that hundreds of people have been accommodated in schools in less-affected areas of the valley.
"There is an emergency situation in Chitral. We are trying our best to rescue the people,” Ghani added.
Afsar Khan, a resident in the tourist destination of Kailash valley, told local Dunya TV by telephone that hundreds of people had taken refuge in the mountains as scores of villages had been inundated with floodwater.
“There is a huge shortage of food and drinking water here. We have children with us but we don’t have food for them,” he said.
Over 200 villages have also been flooded in northeastern Layyah, DG Khan, Bhakkar, Muzzafargarh and Ghotki districts, where floodwater has submerged large swathes of agricultural lands and damaged crops.
TV footage showed people carrying luggage and wading through flooded roads, or using boats, to reach the safer ground.
Authorities have issued a flood warning for several adjoining towns and villages as the meteorological department forecast more rains for the coming two days in the northeast and northwest of Pakistan.
