Tuesday, 19th March 2024
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At least 20 killed after heavy rains in Peshawar, Pakistan

At least 20 people were killed and around 100 injured Sunday after heavy rain and winds in Pakistan's northwest city of Peshawar caused dozens of buildings to collapse, senior police official Mian Syed told AFP.

pakistanAt least 20 people were killed and around 100 injured Sunday after heavy rain and winds in Pakistan’s northwest city of Peshawar caused dozens of buildings to collapse, senior police official Mian Syed told AFP.

Riaz Khan Mehsud, a senior local government official, confirmed the toll and said the number of dead was expected to rise.

Fallen trees and mobile phone towers had blocked several main roads, an AFP reporter at the scene said, while flood water had reached three feet (one metre) deep in some parts of the city of more than three million people.

Safety standards, particularly in construction, are very lax in nuclear-armed but economically underdeveloped Pakistan.

Many of the more than 200 killed in last year’s heavy monsoon rains died after roofs collapses.

Poor construction was blamed for the collapse of the Margalla Towers apartment block in Islamabad in a 2005 earthquake, killing 78 people.

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