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Signs and Portents, part 146
More than 130 people have been killed across Pakistan in the heaviest rains in 16 years that caused a dam to burst, provincial officials said on Friday. Authorities rushed thousands of troops to join rescue operations in the remote southwestern Baluchistan province, where some 20,000 people had been affected by the floods, said Raziq Bugti, a government spokesman in the province said. Officials said at least 60 people died on Thursday night after Baluchistan's Shadikor dam burst, sweeping through villages near the coastal town of Pasni. More than 40 more died from heavy rains in other parts of the province. Some reports said hundreds were missing, though officials said there were no reliable estimates. "Relief operations are in full swing. Army, paramilitary rangers and coast guards are trying to pull out people stranded in the flood water," Bugti told Reuters. Officials said at least five villages, home to around 7,000 people, had been submerged by waters that poured through the 35 metre (115 foot) high and 300 metre long embankment of the dam, constructed just two years ago. "Sixty bodies have been recovered in the Pasni area. They were all killed due to the dam burst," provincial minister Sher Jan Baluch told Reuters.
Posted by: Fred 2005-02-12 |
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