Pakistan Flash Flooding May Have Killed 3,000 as Homes, Bridges Swept Away

As many as 3,000 people may have died in flash floods that devastated northwestern Pakistan after heavy rains and affected almost a million people.

“The death toll could go as high as 3,000 because the level of destruction has been so great,” Mujahid Khan, chief spokesman for Edhi rescue service, said by telephone from Peshawar yesterday.

The death toll currently stands at 1,025, Khan said today. The flood disaster follows the deaths of 152 people when a plane crashed in heavy rain near the capital, Islamabad, on July 28. Homes and bridges have collapsed in the rain, live electric wires have fallen into the waters and families have been swept away in the floods while food supplies for survivors dwindle.