Floods in Pakistan wash away homes and leave at least 220 dead

BUNER, Pakistan (AP) — Rescuers in northwest Pakistan pulled 63 more bodies overnight from homes flattened by landslides and flash floods, raising the death toll from rain-related incidents to at least 220, officials said Saturday.

Hundreds of rescue workers are still searching for survivors in Buner, a mountainous district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where torrential rains and cloudbursts triggered massive flooding on Friday, said Mohammad Suhail, a spokesman for the emergency services. Dozens of homes were swept away.

According to the provincial disaster management authority, at least 351 people have died in rain-related incidents this week across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the northern region of Gilgit-Baltistan.

In recent days, floods in Indian-controlled Kashmir have taken dozens of lives, and driven hundreds from their homes there and in Pakistan.

Such cloudbursts are increasingly common in India’s Himalayan regions and Pakistan’s northern areas, and experts have said climate change is a contributing factor.

A firefighting department vehicle submerged in a floodwater following flash flooding due to heavy rains in the neighbourhood of Mingora, the main town of Swat Valley, northwestern Pakistan, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Sherin Zada)

Residents walk next to damaged cars stuck to an electric pole following flash flooding due to heavy rains in a neighborhood of Mingora, the main town of Swat Valley, northwestern Pakistan, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Naveed Ali)

People carry the body of a victim of a cloudburst incident, sudden intense downpours, after funeral prayers, in Naryan Behak village near Muzaffarabad, the main town of Pakistan's controlled Kashmir, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/M.D. Mughal)

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