DHAKA: Severe flooding from an intense monsoon season has left more than 250 people dead and hundreds more homeless across parts of South Asia and China. Dozens more have been injured or are missing.
In Pakistan, flash flooding has killed 110 people and injured nearly 150 others in recent days, authorities said Saturday.
India also is coping with severe flooding, which has claimed the lives of at least 97 people in Indian-administered Kashmir, Vinod Koul, state relief and rehabilitation commissioner, told CNN on Saturday.
And in southwestern China, more than 40 people have died and 18 others are missing after heavy rains and flooding over the past week, authorities said.
The hardest-hit areas in Pakistan include Punjab, the country's most populous province, and Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
The flooding has destroyed 650 homes in Pakistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's office said.
The Pakistani government reported Friday that up to a foot of rain had fallen in eastern parts of the country within the past day.
Some flood victims died from collapsing roofs or electrocution by downed power lines, officials said.
In India, more than 2,000 villages have been affected in the Kashmir and Jammu region, Koul said. The severe flooding has also damaged or completely washed away dozens of bridges and hundreds of kilometers of road, he added. Power and water systems have been crippled by the monsoons as well.
Some 5,000 people have been rescued from the flood zone as of Saturday, according to the Ministry of Defence.
In China, heavy rain has so far claimed the lives of 43 people over the past week, the country's Civil Affairs Ministry reported Sunday morning, reports CNN.
In Thailand, the state-run MCOT news agency reported that authorities urged residents along waterways in the country's central region to move to higher ground. The risk of flooding increased there after a decision to release more water from a dam to reduce water levels in the flood-hit north, MCOT reported.
Heavy rains also caused extensive flooding in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, South Korea and Japan last month.
** Kashmir flood death toll touches 160
BDST: 0905 HRS, SEP 07, 2014
