Peshawar: At least eight persons, including two children, were killed in a flash flood in northwest Pakistan, officials said.
The incident happened when a vehicle carrying them was heading to a wedding party and it drowned in Wana tehsil of South Waziristan District bordering Afghanistan on Saturday, according to district administration officials.
Six children remain missing and a search operation is underway to find them, the officials said. The rescue team retrieved six bodies of women and two children. Pakistan Army and district administration officials are continuing a search for the missing individuals.
“Some of the bodies have been pulled out of the flood water while a search operation is underway to find the missing children,” said DC South Waziristan Noman Afzal Afridi.
In 2017, at least six people were killed and several houses were damaged after flash floods triggered by heavy rains swamped North and South Waziristan tribal agencies.
Global warming is expected to unleash more rain, exposing millions of more people to river flooding particularly in the United States and parts of Asia, Africa and central Europe, The Express Tribune reported.
A study in the journal Science Advances calculated how much more flood protection will be needed to keep the risks of high-end floods constant in the next 25 years.
Pakistan “will observe almost a doubling in high-end flood risk,” with 11 million people at risk of floods unless protective measures are taken by 2040, the report said. (PTI)
