Twelve people died on Friday when a landslide triggered by heavy rains destroyed their house in Pakistan, rescue officials said, with more than 300 killed since the start of monsoon season.
The family, including three women and a child, were sleeping when their house collapsed in the remote area of Patrak, in the Upper Dir district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
“The landslide in Patrak completely destroyed the house, killing all 12 individuals inside,” Bilal Faizi, a spokesman for the rescue service 1122, told AFP.
Large parts of the country have been hit by heavy rains since Thursday night, with thunderstorms predicted throughout Friday, Pakistan’s meteorological department said.
A cyclonic storm is also predicted to hit the southern coast, bringing with it torrential rains and possible flooding, the Sindh province disaster authority said.
More than 300 people have died across Pakistan in rain-related incidents since the start of the monsoon in July.
Most deaths have occurred in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and neighbouring Punjab province, according to official figures.
“The deaths were a result of lightning, electrocution and collapse of mud or dilapidated houses,” a statement from Punjab’s disaster management agency said on Friday.
In late July, 11 members of a family were killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa when the basement of their house was flooded with rainwater as they slept.
The summer monsoon brings 70-80 per cent of South Asia’s annual rainfall between June and September, and is vital for the livelihoods of millions of farmers in a region of around two billion people.
But it also brings landslides and floods, and scientists have said climate change is making seasonal rains heavier and more unpredictable.
Pakistan is still struggling to recover from the devastating floods that inundated nearly one-third of the country in 2022, affecting more than 33 million people.