Hundreds killed in Pakistan floods
LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) -- At least 424 deaths are being blamed on heavy rains and snow which have soaked Pakistan for the past two weeks, causing dam breaks, flooding and avalanches, according to officials.
The inclement weather is also being blamed for some 104 deaths in neighboring Afghanistan, a health ministry official said.
Across northern Pakistan and in the Pakistan-held section of Kashmir, 209 people have been killed as a result of several snow avalanches and flooding since Friday, Pakistan officials said on Sunday.
Two small dams collapsed Saturday in the Balochistan province of southwestern Pakistan, the same area where heavy rains caused another dam to break on Thursday.
The total number of known dead from the three dams breaks was 215 with hundreds more missing, officials said.
Rescue operations are under way to find those missing after the Shadi Kor dam near Pasni Tehsil on Pakistan's southwestern coast washed away Thursday during after a long period of heavy rain overwhelmed it, a provincial minister in Balochistan told CNN.
The town of Pasni, located about 40 km (25 miles) from the dam, was completely inundated when the dam burst, witnesses said. The flood waters wiped out at least five other villages, and washed out a coastal highway and bridges linking the town with Karachi and Gwadar.
The weather has also damaged communications in the southwestern province of Balochistan as well as in northern areas.
About 25,000 to 30,000 people had been affected by the dam bursts.
The regional airport was also closed after the runway became submerged, and electricity and phone service has been disrupted.
Pakistan's army, navy and coast guard are carrying out relief operations in the region.
Dozens of deaths are blamed on heavy rains in other parts of Pakistan in the last several days, officials said.
India's Foreign Minister Natwar Singh called his Pakistani counterpart, Khursheed Kasuri, and expressed his condolences over the loss of life.
In neighboring Afghanistan, authorities said 104 people have died -- many of them children -- as a result of heavy snowfall and cold weather. Most of the deaths were reported in Paktia province, near the border with northwestern Pakistan.
CNN Producer Syed Mohsin Naqvi in Lahore contributed to this report.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
