Islamabad:
Almost half of the 266 deaths linked to the heaviest monsoon rains of normal were children on their national school vacations, authorities said on Friday.
Most of the deaths have occurred in Punjab, the most populous province, where the Monzonic rain has been 70 percent higher than last year, said Mazhar Hussain of the Provincial Disaster Management Agency of Punjab.
“Children are very vulnerable to this situation. They are playing in the water, they bathe and electricity shocks can occur,” he told AFP.
“That is why its proportion is higher than any other, especially because it is a vacation in Punjab so that schools and universities are closed.”
The National Disaster Agency said Friday that 266 people had been killed throughout Pakistan since the moon hit June 26, with 126 of them children.
Sudden floods, construction collapses, rays and drowning were among the causes of death.
More hundreds have been injured.
An agency spokeswoman told AFP this week that the heaviest rains usually begin later in the monsoon season.
“Such death tolls are usually seen in August, but this year the impact has been remarkably different,” he said.
The rains are expected to be strengthened in August, the agency warned.
A landslide this week caused by torrential rains swept several cars in the Gilgit-Baltistan region, a popular tourist destination marked by imposing mountains, deep valleys and wide rivers.
At the end of June, at least 13 tourists were dragged to death while they took refuge from sudden floods on a shore of the elevated river.
The monsoon season takes south of Asia from 70 to 80 percent of its annual rain, and extends from the end of June to September in Pakistan.
