Search Underway for Missing After Pakistan Flash Floods Kill Over 330

Published: 18 August 2025. The English Chronicle Desk

Rescue workers in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province are racing against time as hopes fade for nearly 150 people still missing after devastating flash floods and landslides claimed at least 337 lives over the weekend. The tragedy unfolded after intense cloudbursts and torrential monsoon downpours struck the mountainous Buner district on Friday, leaving villages cut off, homes destroyed, and families shattered.

The Provincial Disaster Management Authority confirmed the mounting death toll on Sunday and said five army helicopters had been deployed to assist in search and rescue operations across the affected areas. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed his “deep anguish” at the scale of the disaster, pledging that “all available resources” were being mobilised to provide relief to survivors.

Emergency services reported that at least 54 bodies had been recovered in Buner alone, while hundreds more were injured. The provincial government has since declared a state of emergency in nine districts, including Swat, Shangla, Mansehra, Torghar, Bajaur, Upper and Lower Dir, and Battagram. The emergency measures will remain in place until the end of August as authorities brace for further downpours and the risk of additional landslides.

The national toll from this season’s monsoon rains has now climbed to 657 since late June, according to official figures. Entire communities have been devastated, with heartbreaking stories emerging of families wiped out in an instant. In Qadar Nagar village, 24 members of a single family were swept away on the eve of a wedding celebration. Only the head of the family, Umar Khan, survived, as he was away from home when the floods hit. Several of his relatives are still unaccounted for.

Survivors in Buner have accused authorities of failing to issue adequate warnings despite the availability of early warning systems. Residents said that no alerts were broadcast via mosque loudspeakers, a traditional method of warning in remote villages. Officials defended the disaster management efforts, saying the intensity of the rainfall and sudden cloudbursts made it impossible to alert communities in time.

Lt Gen Inam Haider, head of the National Disaster Management Authority, said Pakistan was witnessing “shifting weather patterns” driven by climate change. He noted that this year’s monsoon has already brought 50 per cent more rainfall than the same period last year, with forecasts predicting continued heavy rains through the end of August. Disaster management officials explained that while satellite imagery and meteorological data provide early alerts, unusual cloudbursts are increasingly unpredictable and dangerous, triggering both flash floods and urban inundation.

For many survivors, government relief efforts have provided little comfort. In Sarwarabad, businessman Saqib Hassan said his family had lost everything. “We are homeless now. Our houses have been destroyed. All the government has given us is food rations and seven tents, where we’ve been living for the past two weeks,” he told reporters.

International voices have also expressed alarm. UN Secretary-General António Guterres extended his condolences to victims in both Pakistan and neighbouring India, offering United Nations support for relief operations. The disaster has revived memories of 2022, when unprecedented monsoon floods killed nearly 1,700 people and displaced millions across Pakistan.

Experts warn that the country remains highly vulnerable to climate-induced disasters despite contributing less than 1 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. A study by the World Weather Attribution group found that rainfall this monsoon season was made significantly heavier by climate change. Meteorologist Khalid Khan said Pakistan is now facing an increasingly destructive cycle of heatwaves, heavy rains, glacial floods, and sudden cloudbursts, underscoring the urgent need for climate adaptation and stronger disaster preparedness.

As rescue operations continue, families across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa wait anxiously for news of missing loved ones, their grief deepened by the fear that many may never return.