Intense rains have lashed parts of Pakistan and India and triggered flash floods in Indian-controlled Kashmir’s Jammu region, leaving at least 32 people dead and many missing following a landslide on a Hindu pilgrimage route, news agency Press Trust of India reported on Wednesday.
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The time frame of the flooding deaths was not immediately clear.
Authorities in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province on Wednesday called for army assistance in rescue and relief efforts after torrential rains caused major rivers to swell, inundating villages and displacing more than 150,000 people, officials said.
Rescuers evacuated more than 20,000 people overnight from the outskirts of Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city, which also faced the risk of flooding. Those evacuated from areas near Lahore were living along the bed of the Ravi River, said Irfan Ali Kathia, director general of the Punjab Disaster Management Authority.
Mass evacuations began earlier this week in six districts of Punjab after heavier-than-normal monsoon rains and the release of water from overflowing dams in neighbouring India triggered flash floods in low-lying border regions, Kathia said.
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Forecasters predicted rain will continue across the region this week. Heavy downpours and flash floods in the Himalayan region have killed nearly 100 people in August.