A TORRENT of water threatening to deluge a city in flood-hit Pakistan has begun to recede, officials said yesterday, as emergency workers plugged a breach in defences against the swollen Indus river.

PAKISTANI troops and workers were on a “war footing” as they battled to save the southern city of Thatta after most of the population of 300,000 fled advancing flood waters.

THE world has given or pledged more than $800 million (€630m) to help Pakistan cope with massive floods, the foreign minister said as a surging river in the south led authorities to urge thousands more people to evacuate.