At least 50 people have died in Pakistan in storms that have been lashing the country, officials said on Tuesday, as they urged emergency services to remain on high alert. Authorities in Afghanistan also reported a death toll of 50 the same day.
Lightning and heavy rains have killed hundreds of people across Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Most of the deaths in Pakistan were reported in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where torrential rains and flash floods triggered landslides, damaged homes and uprooted trees.
Rains caused dozens of houses to collapse in the northwest and in eastern Punjab province. A spokesman for the provincial disaster management authority said 21 people had died, with more rains expected this week.
A spokesman for the disaster management authority in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, bordering Afghanistan, said 21 people died there.
Rain also lashed the capital, Islamabad, and killed seven people in southwestern Balochistan province. Streets flooded in the northwestern city of Peshawar and in Quetta, the Balochistan capital.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in televised remarks that he had ordered authorities to provide relief aid. Authorities have now declared a state of emergency in the southwest of the country.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has asked emergency services to remain vigilant amid the forecast of severer weather conditions.
Heavy flooding from seasonal rains has also killed at least 50 people in Afghanistan and injured 36 others over recent days, the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA) reported on Tuesday.
More than 600 houses were damaged or destroyed while about 200 livestock died, the Taliban authorities said earlier. The flooding also damaged large areas of agricultural land and more than 85km (53 miles) of roads, he said.
Aljazeera
