28 killed in Pakistan floods

Rivers burst their banks during monsoon rains in Pakistan this week, washing away streets, battering a dam and killing at least 28 people in the north west, officials said today.

At least 10 people died near Peshawar when their homes collapsed, said Adnan Khan, a spokesman for the north west province’s Disaster Management Authority.

He said dozens of people are believed missing, so the overall death toll could rise.

In the Peshawar area, two elderly men clung to a fence post and each other as a raging torrent swept over their heads, footage on Pakistan’s Dunya TV showed. Two oxen were swept away in the same deluge.

People were forced to trudge through knee-deep water in some streets in the Swat Valley, a newly constructed part of a dam in the Charsadda district collapsed, while crops were soaked in many areas.

Monsoon season often leads to widespread flooding in Pakistan, which has many low-lying villages.

The ongoing rain is a suspected factor in a plane crash in the capital Islamabad, which killed all 152 passengers on board.