Flash floods kill at least 22 in Pakistan

Flash flooding caused by torrential rain and thunderstorms struck several villages in mountainous north-western Pakistan, leaving at least 22 people dead, a senior government official said today.

Some 120 homes have been washed away in the flooding that hit seven villages yesterday in Swat, a hill resort district in North West Frontier Province, about 120 miles north-west of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, said Qari Mahmood, the province’s minister for agriculture and livestock.