50 killed in Heavy monsoon rains in Pakistan

At least 50 people, including eight children, have been killed in floods and landslides caused by the monsoon rains that have swept Pakistan since last month, according to a local official.

The summer monsoon rains fall on the countries of South Asia between June and September of each year, and they constitute between 70 and 80% of the annual rainfall rate.

Fifty deaths have been reported in various rain-related incidents across Pakistan since the monsoon started on June 25," a local disaster management official told AFP, adding that 87 people were injured during this period.

And official data showed that the majority of the dead were in the Punjab region in eastern Pakistan, and the majority of deaths occurred as a result of electrocution or due to the collapse of buildings.

A spokesman for the Emergency Relief Service, Bilal Ahmed Faizi, confirmed the recovery of the bodies of eight children who died in a landslide Thursday in the Shangla district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, in the northwest of the country.

He said aid workers were still searching for other children in the rubble.

Officials in Lahore, Pakistan's second-largest city, said record rainfall hit Wednesday, turning roads into rivers and cutting off power and water for 35 percent of the district's population this week.

The Meteorological Department predicted more heavy rains in the coming days and warned of the possibility of floods.

The province's disaster management agency said Friday it was evacuating people living along the waterways.

Last summer, unprecedented monsoon rains flooded a third of Pakistan, damaging two million homes and killing more than 1,700 people.

At least 27 people, including seven children, were killed in northwest Pakistan early last month.