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Lightning and heavy rain have killed at least 69 people across Pakistan and Afghanistan in the past three days, as authorities in both countries declare states of emergency.
Local officials in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province said most of the deaths there occurred when lightning struck farmers harvesting wheat and rains caused houses to collapse.
The province’s disaster management authority said more rain was expected this week.
Heavy downpours also lashed the capital, Islamabad, and killed seven people in south-western Baluchistan province over the weekend.
Eight others died in north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan.
Rain flooded streets in the north-western city of Peshawar and in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan, where authorities declared a state of emergency.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in televised remarks that he had ordered authorities to provide aid in regions hit by rain.
Pakistan’s water reservoirs would improve because of the rain, he said, while expressing concern over the deaths and damage.
Meanwhile, the Taliban’s State Ministry for Natural Disaster Management said heavy flooding in Afghanistan killed 33 people and injured 27 others in three days.
The ministry said more than 600 houses were either damaged or destroyed while around 200 livestock died.
The flooding also damaged large areas of agricultural land and more than 85 kilometres of roads.
He said authorities in Afghanistan had provided aid to nearly 23,000 families, and that flash floods were reported in 20 out of the country’s 34 provinces.
Pakistani environmental expert, Rafay Alam, said such heavy April rainfall was unusual.
“Two years ago, Pakistan witnessed a heatwave in March and April and now we are witnessing rains and it is all of because of climate change, which had caused heavy flooding in 2022,” Mr Alam said.
In 2022, downpours had swelled rivers and at one point inundated one-third of Pakistan, killing 1,739 people.
The floods also caused $30 billion in damage.
AP/ABC
