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Flash flood kills more in storm-hit Pakistan

2 juillet 2007, 00:00

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A flash flood swept through six villages in Pakistan?s storm-hit Baluchistan province killing 30 people and forcing more than 10,000 from their homes as a huge effort to help more than 1.2 million people geared up.

Early rainy season storms have brought death and destruction to parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan and India killing about 600 people over the past 10 days.

Pakistan has been worst hit. A storm battered the nation?s biggest city, Karachi, on June 23 killing about 230 people.

Three days later a cyclone hit the southwest coast flooding huge tracts of mostly flat Baluchistan, much of which is usually desert.

The cyclone and subsequent floods have affected more than 1.2 million people and killed about 110. About 250,000 people are homeless.

Persistent rain has aggravated the flooding and caused flash floods like the one that swept away the villages in Khuzdar district on Saturday.

Deputy provincial relief commissioner Ali Gul Kurd said the toll from the flash flood could rise.

?We?ve managed to find 30 bodies so far but we don?t even know how many people are missing?, Kurd told Reuters on Sunday.

The military is helping organise rescue and relief efforts with six C-130 cargo aircraft and more than two dozen helicopters carrying out search and rescue and relief operations.

Relief goods were being taken by rail to the town of Sibi and distributed form there, while the coastal belt was being supplied by sea, Kurd said.

Camps for the homeless are being set up but in the meantime, people were crowding into schools. ?Most of the displaced have been moved to schools but there aren?t enough?, Kurd said.

Flooding has also increased the danger of snake bite and authorities across the region are seeking supplies of antivenom, aid workers said.

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