Pakistan bids to evacuate 500,000 in flood-risk areas

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.

The United Nations rushed a top envoy to Pakistan to mobilise international support and address the urgent plight of millions affected by torrential monsoon rains across the volatile country that have killed around 1,500.

The disaster is now into its second week and the rains are spreading into Pakistan’s most populous provinces of Punjab and Sindh, as anger mounts against the government response after villages and farmland were washed away.