Five Dead, Including Two Pilots, in Helicopter Crash
"Impact of Expanding Indian Cloudburst Rains"
Following severe flooding in India, the neighboring northwestern region of Pakistan has also been struck by sudden torrential rains, resulting in the deaths of over 200 people.
A man is riding a donkey-drawn cart through a rain-flooded street in Hyderabad, Sindh Province, Pakistan on the 20th. Photo by AFP Yonhap News
According to AP and other sources on August 16 (local time), a rescue official reported that flash floods triggered by heavy downpours in Buner District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, northwestern Pakistan, claimed 220 lives, with dozens still missing.
The death toll stood at 157 the previous day, but rescue teams recovered an additional 63 bodies from homes destroyed by floods and landslides.
Damaged bodies continued to be found in villages where houses had collapsed. Rescue workers used boats and helicopters to save residents stranded by the floods. One witness told AP that he saw the torrent sweeping away hundreds of rocks as it surged downstream.
A local police officer also stated, "The river near Pir Baba village in Buner District suddenly swelled. At first, we thought it was a typical flood, but when dozens of tons of rocks came pouring down with the water, 60 to 70 houses were swept away in an instant."
With search operations ongoing, the death toll is expected to rise further.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif convened an emergency meeting, ordering the evacuation of tourists and displaced residents, while disaster management authorities declared a state of emergency across the Buner District area.
A helicopter transporting relief supplies to flood-affected areas also crashed in the mountainous Bajaur District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province due to deteriorating weather conditions.
All five people on board, including two pilots, died in the crash.
According to the National Disaster Management Authority of Pakistan, the nationwide death toll from heavy rains since June 26 now stands at 541.
This week alone, at least 351 people have died due to torrential rains in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in the northwest and Gilgit-Baltistan Province in the north.
Earlier, on August 14, similar flash floods triggered by heavy rain struck a mountain village in the Kishtwar region of Indian-administered Kashmir near Pakistan, killing 60 people and leaving 80 missing. Of the 150 injured, 50 are in critical condition.
AP reported that the so-called "cloudburst" rains that began in Indian-administered Kashmir have spread into northwestern Pakistan.
Recently, due to climate change, the Indian Himalayan region and northern Pakistan have experienced frequent cloudbursts, with extremely heavy rainfall concentrated in small areas over short periods.
In South Asian countries such as India and Pakistan, the monsoon season lasts from June to September each year. The region’s poor sewage and drainage infrastructure often leads to large-scale casualties.
From June 24 to July 24, rainfall in Pakistan was 10 to 15 percent higher than usual, attributed to global warming.
In 2022, record floods and heavy rains in Pakistan killed more than 1,700 people, with losses estimated at $40 billion (approximately 55.6 trillion won).
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