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Death toll in Pak floods mounts to 155

Meanwhile, at least ten people were killed when a pickup truck tried to cross a flooded stream in northwestern Pakistan.

Updated on: Aug 8, 2006, 17:54:00 IST
None | By , Islamabad
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A pickup truck was swept away as it tried to ford a flooded stream, killing 10 people and leaving three missing, as the death toll from two weeks of monsoon rains in northwestern Pakistan rose to 155, officials said on Tuesday.

HT Image
HT Image

The passenger truck was trying to cross the stream on Monday night near Khawaza Khela, a small town in Swat district, about 190 kms northwest of Pakistan's capital of Islamabad, said Jan Bahadur, a local police emergency officer.

Rescuers pulled out 10 bodies from flood waters. At least three other people were missing, including a woman and a child, another police official said on condition of anonymity because he lacked the authority to formally speak to the media.

On Tuesday, the same flooded stream washed away part of bridge in Khawaza Khela, drowning one man and injuring three others, Bahadur said. Police and civilian rescuers were trying to determine if anyone else was dead or missing.

The latest deaths take to 155 the number of people who have died since July 26 when heavy monsoon rains began, triggering floods, mudslides and home collapses in North West Frontier Province, where Swat is located.

Dozens more people have died in flooding and mudslides in eastern Punjab province and Pakistan's part of the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir.

Thousands more people have been displaced, including victims of last year's monster earthquake that killed about 80,000 across northern Pakistan.

The monsoon rains are the heaviest in at least five years.

 
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