News Digest

Thousands trapped in deadly Indian Kashmir floods

Five days of heavy rains have left more than 335 dead in Pakistan and the Pakistan and Indian-administered areas of Kashmir, in the region’s worst flooding in more than five decades. By Sunday, flooding had submerged at least 450 villages and triggered landslides in Kashmir, killing 175, while in neighbouring Pakistan more than 160 people have died and thousands others have been made homeless. Rescuers in Pakistan and the Kashmir area were using helicopters and boats to try to reach tens of thousands of stranded people. More than 4,000 homes in Pakistan have collapsed, leaving thousands homeless. A senior official in Pakistan’s Punjab rescue agency said 103 people had died in the province. He added that about 5,000 people had been rescued since Thursday, but that three soldiers had gone missing during the rescue operation.

Army helicopters and navy boats are rescuing people and taking them to safety from submerged villages in Punjab and affected areas of Kashmir.

Ahmed Kamal, spokesman for Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority

Though the rains had stopped on Sunday, officials said the spreading water from the overflowing Jhelum River was moving too fast to allow boats to reach many people stranded in Srinagar. By evening, several boats had been deployed to start rescue efforts, said Omar Abdullah, Jammu and Kashmir state’s top elected official. In many Srinagar’s neighbourhoods, the water was about 4 metres deep, submerging entire houses. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi surveyed the flood-hit areas from a helicopter on Sunday and promised the state federal help to deal with the devastation, which he described as a “national level disaster”.