Pakistani rescue teams battled against multiple disasters over the weekend as the death toll from a week of blizzards and torrential rainfall climbed to more than 360.
A second dam ruptured in Baluchistan province on Sunday, killing seven people, after at least 135 died and up to 1 500 were still missing when the Shadikor dam burst over several coastal towns on Thursday.
Many more casualties were reported over the weekend after avalanches and landslides in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and the Himalayan region of Kashmir as the region’s worst winter weather for many years continued.
Landslides buried two villages in the Kashmir valley, killing 56 people, and more than 100 died in flash floods avalanches and roof collapses in NWFP.
Thousands of soldiers have been scrambled to help in the worst-hit areas, where communities have been cut off. Helicopters, cargo planes and boats have been taking in emergency supplies.
President Pervez Musharraf flew to Baluchistan to survey the flood damage and announced financial compensation for victims. Relief operations in the poor south-western province were hampered because floodwaters from the Shadikor dam swept away large sections of a new coastal highway, making some areas accessible only by helicopter.
More than 18 000 homes had been damaged, an army spokesperson said on Sunday night.
Huge tracts of land beside the Arabian Sea coast of Baluchistan remain submerged.
Witnesses travelling by military helicopter to the scene said they could see vehicles stranded on the coast road to Pasni, where at least two bridges had collapsed.
In Uthal village Allah Bakhsh said his 18-year-old son was missing along with dozens of his neighbours. ”I don’t know what has happened to them,” he told the Associated Press news agency.
Mohammed Rafiq, a 30-year-old shepherd, said: ”The water started flowing very fast and with a big noise. It washed away our homes, our goats and cattle.” He managed to move his family to higher land.
In NWFP ice and rock avalanches killed six people in the picturesque Swat valley, while in another valley only one child from a family of six survived when their home was buried by snow.
Twenty-four soldiers caught in an avalanche in the remote Tirah valley were still missing on Sunday, said Major General Shaukat Sultan, a military spokesperson. Sixteen others were rescued on Saturday.
Snowdrifts blocked roads through the Himalayas, Karakoram and Hindu Kush ranges. The Karakoram highway, which links Pakistan to China, remained closed.
Rain and snow also triggered avalanches and landslides in Afghanistan and Indian-controlled Kashmir.
However, relief officials said casualty figures were not precise. Amid the confusion, it was impossible to confirm all reports due to lack of access.
Pakistan’s meteorological department forecast that the downpours would ease in some parts but continue in Baluchistan and the north for at least another two days. – Guardian Unlimited Â