Daily Times

PESHAWAR: Government officials revised on Monday the death toll from flooding caused by monsoon rains in the Chitral district down to 33, as the Pakistan Army was flying food and medical supplies to damaged areas.

On Sunday officials had put the total number of people killed at 43, saying that 41 of them died in a village in the Chitral district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where flash floods swept away their homes without warning.

Authorities also said that two Chinese engineers had been killed at the Tarbela Dam construction site, also in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

But on Monday officials said there had been duplication in the death count, revising the Chitral toll down to 29.

They also said two Pakistani workers had died alongside the Chinese engineers at the dam construction site, bringing the total toll across the province to 33.

Thirteen people are still missing in Chitral, said district’s Deputy Commissioner Usama Waraich, adding that authorities were evacuating some residents with more rain forecast Monday.

Dozens of homes in the village of Ursoon in Chitral were damaged in the floods with the army saying Monday five of them were completely swept away.

The remote village had received no evacuation warning and remained cut off Monday, with roads to it damaged by the floods.

The military said it was flying in medical aid, tents and food to Ursoon by helicopter.

Afghan authorities also said they had recovered 13 bodies, including of eight Pakistani soldiers, which were swept over the border from Chitral into Afghanistan. “We found the bodies yesterday and they were handed over to the Pakistani authorities,” said Ehsanullah Fazal, head of the public health hospital in Afghanistan’s Kunar province.