More dead feared in Pakistani floods

The number of people known to have been killed by floods in north-west Pakistan has passed 1,000.

Over 30,000 troops have joined the relief effort, with large parts of the north-west submerged by the worst monsoon rains in memory. There are also fears that with more rain forecast for the next 24 hours, some areas face further threats. 

The Floods driven by record-breaking rainfall had killed at least 800 people, many in the northwest, and destroyed thousands of homes in the past week, officials said Saturday, in the latest disaster to test Pakistan’s already strained federal government.

.The crisis comes as the government is also struggling to fight an Islamic insurgency and to cope with the aftermath of Wednesday’s plane crash in which 152 people died in the fog- and rain-shrouded Himalayan foothills just outside this capital city. It was the worst aviation accident in Pakistan’s history.

Officials said the deluge was the worst since 1929 in northwest Pakistan, where water levels in dams continued to rise alarmingly. And with more rain forecast for all but that part of the country, raising the likelihood of more flash floods and landslides, government officials issued pleas for international aid.