Millions being evacuated as Pakistan faces fresh deluge

Islamabad, The Gulf Observer: First responders in southern Pakistan were scrambling to evacuate millions of people from remote villages on Friday as the region nervously awaited the arrival of rainwater flowing from the country’s north, officials said.

According to media reports, the rescue efforts in the province of Sindh, which was has been the worst hit province in a series of floods that have occurred since mid-June, were being supported by military helicopters and boats, provincial government spokesperson Murtaza Wahab said.

It is a race against time, said Wahab, who was overseeing the evacuation.

Pakistan’s River Indus, which flows from the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea in the south, has once again burst its banks following heavy rains in the mountains last week.

Almost 20,000 cubic metres of water per second is now flowing downstream and will shortly reach major cities in Sindh, the disaster management agency said.

The death toll from the flooding has already reached 1,208 and was expected to rise,media reports said in an update on Thursday.