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Death toll from Pakistan’s heavy storm hits 45

Pakistani residents collect belongings at their home after it was damaged in heavy rain and winds in Peshawar on April 27, 2015. ©AFP

The death toll from heavy storm and flooding in northwest Pakistan has risen more than twofold compared to initial figures, according to local officials.

Mushtaq Ghani, the information minister for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, announced Monday that the latest toll from the severe storms that hit the region a day earlier has climbed to at least 45.

Police sources said late Sunday that at least 20 people had been killed while 100 were reported to have suffered injuries.

Ghani updated the number of those wounded, saying almost several hundred have been hospitalized.  

Pakistani residents collect their belongings at their home after it was damaged in heavy rain and winds in Peshawar on April 27, 2015. © AFP

He said the flooding has also caused serious damage to the farms in the region with crops completely washed away in many fields.

Heavy rains and winds up to 120 kilometers per hour have swept through parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, inflicting considerable losses on many homes and utility structures in the area. Meteorological officials have called the storm “unusual,” saying that it caused massive tornadoes.

Rescue and relief is underway by the army forces and civilian agencies as thousands of people have become homeless in the wake of the disaster.

Pakistani residents pray alongside the coffins of victims killed in heavy rain and winds in Peshawar on April 27, 2015. © AFP

Heavy rains and flash floods hit the Pakistani province of Punjab and the disputed Indian-administered Kashmir in September 2014, claiming the lives of hundreds of people, destroying agricultural products, damaging tens of thousands of houses, and affecting a total of over a million people.

MS/HMV


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