Authorities have called on emergency services to remain on high alert with more severe weather on the way.
Lightning and heavy rains have killed dozens of people across Pakistan and Afghanistan.
At least 50 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. More than 80 people have been reported killed in the two countries.
Most of the deaths 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 northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, said 21 people died there.
Rain also lashed the capital, Islamabad, and killed seven people in southwestern Baluchistan province. Streets flooded in the northwestern city of Peshawar and in Quetta, the Baluchistan 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 as even more severe weather moves in.
Afghan floods
Heavy flooding from seasonal rains also killed 33 people in Afghanistan and injured 27 others over recent days, according to the Taliban’s spokesman for the State Ministry for Natural Disaster Management.
More than 600 houses were damaged or destroyed while about 200 livestock died. The flooding also damaged large areas of agricultural land and more than 85km (53 miles) of roads, he said.
Afghanistan has provided aid to nearly 23,000 families, with flash floods reported in 20 of the country’s 34 provinces.
‘Monsoon on steroids’
Speaking to local media, Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, said climate change was to blame for the surge in lightning incidents.
Despite contributing very little to the global climate crisis, Pakistan remains one of the countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
In 2022, floods – caused by a “monsoon on steroids”, as described by UN chief Antonio Guterres – killed at least 1,739 and affected 33 million people. At their peak, the floods submerged more than one-third of the country.
