Suspected gang members have killed 39 people in two days in Pakistan’s largest city, with many of the victims tortured, shot and stuffed in sacks which were dumped on the streets, officials said today.

A wave of violence killed 33 people in the last 24 hours in Pakistan's largest city, with many of the victims tortured, shot and stuffed in sacks that were dumped on the streets, officials said today.

GUNMEN opened fire on two buses and waged street battles in Pakistan’s largest city, killing at least 22 people as part of a spate of violence that has claimed 49 lives in three days, officials said.

Police stepped up patrols in Karachi today to try to prevent renewed violence after angry mobs rampaged through the city in the aftermath of a suicide attack on a Sufi shrine that left eight dead and 65 injured.

At least 27 tankers carrying fuel for Nato troops in Afghanistan were attacked in southern Pakistan.

The death toll from a Pakistani Taliban suicide attack on a Shiite Muslim procession rose from 43 to 65 overnight as critically wounded people died in hospitals, police said today.

Thousands of people streamed back to the historic southern city of Thatta today where new levees hastily built from clay and stone held back floodwaters that have inundated much of Pakistan.

Floodwaters inundated a large town in southern Pakistan today, spreading further destruction in an area where hundreds of thousands of people who fled to higher ground are in dire need of food and water.

PAKISTAN ordered 300,000 people to evacuate a southern city after waters breached its defences as the United Nations warned yesterday the country’s worst humanitarian crisis was deepening.

Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis were fleeing a southern region today after the bloated Indus River crushed an embankment and flooded new areas, officials said.

PAKISTAN battled yesterday to save areas threatened by more devastating flood waters as the United Nations warned that 800,000 people in desperate need of aid had been cut off by the deluge.

PAKISTAN’S medical system has been badly hit by weeks of flooding, with hundreds of health facilities damaged and tens of thousands of medical workers displaced, the prime minister said yesterday as the country braced for the spread of disease.

Pakistan is bracing itself for countrywide outbreaks of disease after the weeks of flooding damaged hospitals and clinics and turned tens of thousands of medical workers into refugees.

Pakistan’s president said it will take at least three years to recover from the floods that are battering the country.

About 150,000 Pakistanis were forced to move to higher ground as floodwaters from a freshly swollen Indus River submerged dozens more towns and villages in the south, a government spokesman said today.

PAKISTAN has accepted €4 million in aid from India for flood victims, a rare expression of goodwill between the feuding neighbours at a time when Pakistan is reeling from one of its worst ever natural disasters.

THE European Union says it will spend an extra €30m to fund emergency aid for victims of devastating floods in Pakistan.

The devastating Pakistan floods are unlikely to recede fully for almost a fortnight, the country's top forecaster said today.

Victims of Pakistan’s deadly floods have mobbed relief lorries carrying food, and authorities in the north west warned of famine unless the region’s farmers received immediate help to plant new crops.

THE World Bank said yesterday it will redirect $900 million (€698m) of its existing loans to Pakistan to help in flood recovery as the UN warned that many of the 20m people affected by the disaster have yet to receive any emergency aid.

The World Bank today vowed to redirect £575m (€698m) of its existing loans to Pakistan to help in flood recovery, as the UN warned many of the 20 million people affected by the disaster have yet to receive any emergency aid.

Many of the 20 million people affected by flooding in Pakistan have yet to receive any assistance despite a growing international relief effort, the UN said today as authorities warned the swollen Indus River may burst its banks again in the coming days.

Britain's International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell has said the world's response to the floods in Pakistan has been "woefully inadequate".

Angry flood survivors in Pakistan today blocked a road to protest against the slow delivery of aid, as a forecast of more flooding increased the urgency of the massive international relief effort.

Authorities were warning of more flooding this week in Pakistan while heavy rain lashed victims living in makeshift camps, adding to the urgency of a massive international relief effort under way.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the world to speed up assistance to flood-ravaged Pakistan yesterday as the 20 million people made homeless grew increasingly desperate, and new torrents inundated villages.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has urged the world to speed up aid to Pakistan.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in flood-ravaged Pakistan today to boost relief efforts as the 20 million people made homeless grew increasingly desperate.

Pakistani flood survivors already short of food and water began the fasting month of Ramadan today, a normally festive, social time marked this year by misery and fears of an uncertain future.

THE United Nations appealed yesterday for$459 million (€356m) in aid for flood-hit Pakistan, warning of a second wave of death among sick, hungry survivors unless help arrives quickly.

PRESIDENT Asif Ali Zardari returned yesterday to flood-ravaged Pakistan, where he faced a storm of criticism for visiting Europe as his country was gripped by what his government called the nation’s worst natural disaster.

THOSE unfortunate enough to have their homes, farms or business caught up in our occasional but terribly damaging floods will have some very small idea of the great challenges facing the people of Pakistan.

Pakistan’s president Asif Ali Zardari returned to his flood-ravaged country and a storm of criticism today for visiting Europe amid the nation’s worst natural disaster.

THE Pakistan floods could affect more people than the world’s last three great disasters combined, the UN warned yesterday.

The Pakistan floods could affect more people than the world’s last three great disasters combined, the UN warned today.

FRESH rains lashed flood-hit Pakistan yesterday, hampering aid efforts and threatening to deepen a crisis affecting 15 million people in the country’s worst ever floods.

More rain soaked flood-ravaged Pakistan today and even heavier downpours were forecast for coming days, deepening a crisis in which hard-line Islamists have rushed to fill gaps in the government’s patchy response.

More heavy rain is falling in flood-ravaged Pakistan and even heavier downpours are forecast.

PAKISTAN battled to contain flooding in its rich agricultural south yesterday, evacuating half a million people from risk areas as the UN warned of the “daunting” scale of the crisis.

Pakistan is on red alert today for extreme flooding in its rich agricultural south.

There are fears of a new humanitarian crisis developing in Pakistan.

PAKISTAN began evacuating half a million people from flood-risk areas in the south yesterday as the overall number hit by the country’s worst floods in living memory rose to more than four million.

Flood survivors loaded down with possessions fled for their lives in Pakistan today while the government came under renewed criticism for its response to the growing catastrophe.

DESPERATE survivors crushed into relief centres yesterday after Pakistan’s worst floods in living memory as officials feared a food crisis could compound the humanitarian disaster.