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Rains sweep away villages in worst-hit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province as rescuers search for 150 missing people.
Published On 18 Aug 2025
At least 20 people have been killed when new monsoon rains caused flooding in northwestern Pakistan, local officials say, as the region is ravaged by an unusually intense and deadly monsoon season.
“A cloudburst in the Gadoon area of Swabi completely destroyed several houses, killing more than 20 people,” a local official in the district told the AFP news agency on Monday. Local Pakistani media also reported on the latest deaths due to the flooding.
Three to five villages were wiped out by the huge amount of rain falling in a short period of time, a second official said, confirming the death toll in the worst-hit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The new deluge comes as rescuers continue to search for at least 150 people still missing in several districts across the province and as the floods have killed more than 300 people in recent days.
Government official Awais Babar said rescuers evacuated nearly 100 people in the Swabi area, mostly women and children, who had taken refuge on the roofs of homes.
But the latest heavy rains halted the ongoing search efforts for the missing.
“Dozens of bodies are still buried under the mud and rocks, which can only be recovered with heavy machinery,” Nisar Ahmad, 31, a volunteer in the worst-hit Buner district told AFP.
“However the makeshift tracks built to access the area have once again been destroyed by the new rains.”
No warning
Villagers said there were no warning broadcast from mosque loudspeakers, as is often the case .The government said the deluge struck before residents could be informed.
Many people fled to seek shelter under damaged infrastructure and in the mountains in Buner, an area with difficult terrain.
“Even if it rains a little now, we feel scared because there was light rain that day. And then the unsuspecting people were swept away by the storm,” Buner resident Ghulam Hussain, 35, told AFP.
Volunteer Ahmad said there were also fears for the future due to a lack of food supplies and clean water.
“Many livestock have also perished in the cloudburst, and their decomposing bodies are spreading a foul odour in several places. Right now, our most urgent need is clean drinking water, and I appeal to the government to provide it,” he told AFP.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chaired a high-level meeting on Monday to review relief efforts in flood-hit areas. Preliminary government estimates put the cost of flood damage to government and private property at around $445,000, Sharif’s office said in a statement.
On Sunday, provincial Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur said many deaths could have been avoided if residents had not built homes along waterways. He said the government would encourage displaced families to relocate to safer areas, where they would be assisted in rebuilding homes.
According to the National Disaster Agency, the intensity of this year’s monsoon – vital for agriculture – is about 50 to 60 percent higher than last year.
This year’s heavy rains have claimed the lives of more than 650 people, with over 920 injured.
Pakistan is among the world’s most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change.
