The death toll from flash floods in Pakistan's northwest has exceeded 800 and may climb further as thousands remain stranded in the region's worst storms.
"God knows where it will end," Mujahid Khan, a spokesman for the Edhi rescue service, said today.
The flooding deaths come after 152 people died when a plane crashed in heavy rain near the capital on July 28th.
Homes and bridges have collapsed in the rain, live electric wires have fallen into the waters and families have been swept away in the floods.
"We can see people drowning but we can't go into the water because of its high pressure," Mr Khan said.
"The relief efforts of everyone combined is only 5 per cent of what's required."
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, who toured the stricken province by air, has ordered increased resources to rescue people and provide food supplies.
Floods may reach the southern province of Sindh within the next few days, Information Minister Sumsam Bokhari told a news conference in Islamabad.
The Sindh government has ordered residents along the banks of the River Indus to be evacuated.
Troops equipped with life jackets, motorboats and heavy rafts were called in yesterday to help move families to safety, according to a statement on the military website.
Pakistani television channels showed images of people on flooded roads grabbing wreckage to keep from being swept away.
"All the houses in my village have been destroyed and now it's simply a fight for survival," Mehmood Khan, a tribal elder, said by telephone from Wana, South Waziristan.
"Food supplies have started to run out. We haven't eaten in 48 hours and the scant food supplies we saved for women and children may not last long."
The districts of Nowshera, Charsadda, Peshawar, Swat, and Lower Dir are the worst-affected, according to the government.
The first spell of the monsoon started on July 22nd and affected the western province of Baluchistan, according to the National Disaster Management Ageny in Islamabad.
Bloomberg