A Pakistani woman stranded by the country's worst floods in 80 years gave birth to twin boys today, bringing joy to soldiers and villagers struggling amid floods that have killed 1,600 people and affected more than 13 million.
Army helicopter pilot Cpt Abdul Munim Khan thought he was picking up another dead victim of the deluge when he landed in a flooded village and men bearing a body on a rope bed, covered by a sheet, moved towards him through chest-deep water.
"But when they came close, I realised that she was alive. To my pleasant surprise, there were also the twin boys," Khan told Reuters after the rescue.
Of the twin boys was born 15 minutes before midday and the other twin was born as the rescue helicopter was circling above to find a safe landing position on a road surrounded by flood waters.
The mother was then carried on a makeshift bed through chest deep flood waters to the awaiting Pakistan army helicopter.
The young mother, Zahida Perveen, who had given birth in the open, was taken to hospital with her boys. "I was so happy, I was weeping when I saw they were boys," she said from her hospital bed.
Mother and children were doing fine, hospital officials said.
Agencies