Pakistani rescuers were searching for bodies today after a bridge collapsed in the country's northwest in torrential rain, killing scores of people, officials said today.
At least 40 bodies have been recovered in Mardan, the second biggest city in North West Frontier Province, and officials fear that the toll might cross 50. The bridge collapsed yesterday in a central residential area of the city, about 50 km (30 miles) from the provincial capital Peshawar.
"People were standing on the bridge and watching the floods when it was washed away. So far, we have recovered 40 bodies but fear more might have died," Javed Ahmed, the top administration official in Mardan, said.
Ahmed said the central and residential parts of Mardan, which has a population of 500,000, had been flooded due to heavy rains and the damage to property was considerable. "We have rescued hundreds of people with the help of army personnel and police and shifted them to safer places," he said.
Torrential rains and heavy flooding in recent weeks have caused extensive damage and deaths in NWFP and Pakistani Kashmir, parts of which were also hit by a devastating earthquake last year. Incessant rains have forced some 6,000 quake survivors living in mountain areas to move to camps.
There has also been heavy flooding and a breakdown of civic services in the cities of Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi with dozens killed in low-lying neighbourhoods.