Flood kills 14 wedding guests

At least 14 people were killed Saturday when a vehicle carrying wedding guests was washed off a mountainous road by floodwater and flung into a gorge, an official said.

“Dead bodies of 14 people had been retrieved, most of those killed and wounded were women and children,” Rahimullah Mehsud, a local government official of Khyber tribal district, where the incident took place, told AFP.

The accident happened when a pick-up truck carrying the groom’s party of more than 20 people was hit by floods in a remote village of Khyber, one of Pakistan’s seven tribal districts bordering Afghanistan.

Mehsud said a search was ongoing for the missing but rescue workers and residents were facing difficulties as the “area is remote and mountainous”.

He added: “We have no exact number of those travelling in the Datsun pick-up but residents told us there were more than 20.”

The heavy monsoon rains began earlier this month, drenching the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and central Punjab provinces, which have been badly affected by flooding in recent years that some scientists have linked to climate change.

AFP

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