Pakistan rain havoc toll rises to 49

At least 49 people were killed and 80 injured over the last four days in accidents caused by a spell of torrential rains in Pakistan, the authorities said yesterday.
The country’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said the country’s Balochistan province was the worst hit where 18 people were killed, 22 injured and 49 houses collapsed in incidents caused by rains, Xinhua reported.
The northwest tribal area of the country also received heavy rains which caused several roof collapse accidents.
The NDMA said that 15 people were killed, 25 others injured and three houses collapsed due to heavy rains in the area.
The authority said seven labourers were killed and 10 injured when a coal mine caved in due to landslide caused by heavy rains in Orakzai area of the tribal belt.
The country’s east Punjab province was also affected by the rains where 10 people were killed, 18 injured and four houses collapsed.
In the country’s northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, six people were killed, 15 injured and 19 houses destroyed due to torrential rains.
The director general of Pakistan Met office said the current weather condition will persist till Monday and a new spell of rain is expected to hit the country from tomorrow.
He said that normally the country does not witness such a severe rain pattern in spring season, but due to El Nino climate cycles, the temperatures of the Pacific Ocean is warmer than normal.