Islamabad: At least 280 people have been killed and over two million affected in massive flooding triggered by heavy monsoon rains in Pakistan even as military specialists blew up dikes to divert swollen rivers and save cities from raging floods.
The rains lashed vast areas of the country last week and since have stopped but the floods triggered by the heavy showers are still out of control.
Spokesman for Pakistan's National Disaster Management authority, Ahmad Kamal, said rains and floods have killed 280 people and injured more than 500 in Punjab, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and another Gilgit-Baltistan region.
Over 2 million, majority of them in Punjab, were also affected by the floods.
Military specialists blew up dikes in central Pakistan to divert swollen rivers and save cities from raging floods.
The Chenab river is in high flood and raging down from central to south Punjab, leaving a trail of devastation, authorities said.
The city of Multan has been saved after officials created several breaches in the protective embankments to divert the floods.
After Punjab, the flood is expected to hit southern province of Sindh by the weekend before going down into the Arabian sea.
Civil and military officials have been using choppers and boats to rescue people.
Pakistan's military said it is still evacuating people and air-dropping food in the districts of Multan, Muzaffargarh and Jhang.
Troops had air-dropped tons of food in flood-affected areas and the army's medical teams were also treating patients.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who visited Jhang to review rescue operations, in a televised speech there, announced that flood-affected people would be exempted from paying their electricity bills.
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