Flash floods in Pakistan and India kill 300

Landslides and flash floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains have killed nearly 300 people in northern India and Pakistan, officials said.

Five days of incessant rains in Indian-controlled Kashmir have left at least 120 people dead in the region’s worst flooding in more than five decades, submerging hundreds of villages and triggering landslides, officials said.

In neighbouring Pakistan, more than 160 people have died and thousands of homes have collapsed, with an official saying the situation was becoming a “national emergency”.

Rescuers in both countries were using helicopters and boats to try to reach tens of thousands of people stranded in their homes as floodwaters rose and submerged many villages.

Rescue efforts in Srinagar, the main city in Indian Kashmir, were hampered by fast-moving floodwaters that submerged large parts of the city. The rains had stopped yesterday but officials said the spreading water from the overflowed Jhelum river was moving too fast to allow boats to reach many people.

By evening, several boats had been deployed to start rescue efforts, said Omar Abdullah, Jammu and Kashmir state’s top elected official. In many of Srinagar’s neighbourhoods, the water was about 12ft deep, submerging entire houses.

Across Indian Kashmir schools, colleges and offices have been shut, and electricity and drinking water supplies have been limited across the state.

Ahmed Kamal, spokesman for Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority, said 48 people had died in the Pakistani-administered part of Kashmir and 11 in the adjacent Gilgit Baltistan area.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, but claimed in its entirety by both countries.