Flash floods kill more than 280 people in India and Pakistan as
thousands flee
[August 16, 2025]
By CHANNI ANAND and RIAZ KHAN
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Flash floods triggered by torrential rains
have killed over 280 people in India and Pakistan and left scores of
others missing, officials said Friday, as rescuers brought to safety
some 1,600 people from two mountainous districts in the neighboring
countries.
Flooding began a day earlier in Indian-controlled Kashmir and spread to
the north and northwest in Pakistan, triggered by sudden, intense
downpours over small areas. The floods and subsequent landslides injured
dozens of people and forced the evacuation and rescue of thousands of
others, particularly in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Such cloudbursts are increasingly common in India’s Himalayan regions
and Pakistan’s northern areas, and experts have said climate change is a
contributing factor.
Leaders in both countries offered their condolences to the victims’
families and assured them of swift relief.
Dozens missing in remote Himalayan village
In Indian-controlled Kashmir, rescuers searched for missing people in
the remote Himalayan village of Chositi after flash floods a day earlier
left at least 60 people dead and at least 80 missing, officials said.
At least 300 people were rescued Thursday following a powerful
cloudburst that triggered floods and landslides, but the operation was
halted overnight. Officials said many missing people were believed to
have been washed away, and the number of missing could increase.
Resident Harvinder Singh said he joined the rescue efforts immediately
after the disaster and helped retrieve 33 bodies from the mud.
At least 50 seriously injured people were treated at hospitals, many of
them rescued from a stream filled with mud and debris.
Chositi, in Kashmir’s Kishtwar district, is the last village accessible
to motor vehicles on the route of an annual Hindu pilgrimage to a
mountainous shrine at an altitude of 3,000 meters (9,500 feet).
Officials said the pilgrimage, which began July 25 and was scheduled to
end Sept. 5, was suspended.
The devastating floods swept away the main community kitchen for
pilgrims, as well as dozens of vehicles and motorbikes. More than 200
pilgrims were in the kitchen at the time of the flood, which also
damaged or washed away many of the homes clustered together in the
foothills, officials said.
Sneha, who gave only one name, said her husband and a daughter were
swept away. The two were having meals at the community kitchen while she
and her son were nearby. The family had come for the pilgrimage, she
said.
Authorities erected makeshift bridges Friday to help stranded pilgrims
cross a muddy water channel and used dozens of earthmovers to shift
boulders, uprooted trees, electricity poles and other debris. Nearly
4,000 pilgrims were evacuated, officials said.
Photos and videos on social media showed household goods strewn next to
damaged vehicles and homes in the village.
Kishtwar district is home to multiple hydroelectric power projects,
which experts have long warned pose a threat to the region’s fragile
ecosystem.
More heavy rain and floods were forecast for the area.
Hundreds of tourists trapped by floods in Pakistan
In northern and northwestern Pakistan, flash floods killed at least 243
people, including 157 who died Friday in the Buner district in northwest
Pakistan.
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Stranded pilgrims are helped across a water channel using a
makeshift bridge a day after flash floods in Chositi village,
Kishtwar district, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025.
(AP Photo/Channi Anand)
Mohammad Suhail told The Associated Press that dozens of people were
still missing, and rescue operations were underway.
He said 78 bodies were recovered by midday Friday, and another 79
were pulled from the rubble of collapsed homes and flooded villages
later.
“The death toll may rise as we are still looking for dozens of
missing people,” Suhail said.
Dozens were injured as the deluge destroyed homes in villages in
Buner, where authorities declared a state of emergency on Friday.
Rescuers backed by boats and helicopters worked to reach stranded
residents. Ambulances transported more than 100 bodies to hospitals,
according to a government statement.
Bilal Faizi, a provincial emergency service spokesman in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa, said rescuers worked for hours to save 2,000 tourists
trapped by flash flooding and landslides in the Siran Valley in
Mansehra district and elsewhere on Thursday.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, at an emergency meeting, ordered the
disaster-management authority to ensure the evacuation of tourists
and all those hit by the floods.
A helicopter carrying relief supplies to the northwestern Bajaur
region crashed due to bad weather, killing all five people on board,
including two pilots, a government statement said.
The latest fatalities bring the total number of rain-related deaths
to 556 since June 26, according to the National Disaster Management
Authority.
Region hit by multiple floods in recent weeks
Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan region has been hit by multiple floods
since July, triggering landslides along the Karakoram Highway, a key
trade and travel route linking Pakistan and China that tourists use
to travel to the scenic north. The region is home to scenic glaciers
that provide 75% of Pakistan’s stored water supply.
During the summer, when schools are closed for more than two months,
hundreds of thousands of people travel to scenic destinations in
northern and northwestern Pakistan. This year, despite repeated
government warnings about landslides and flash floods, many still
visited popular resorts in flood-hit areas.
Pakistan’s disaster-management agency has issued fresh alerts for
glacial lake outburst flooding in the north, warning travelers to
avoid affected areas.
A study released this week by World Weather Attribution, a network
of international scientists, found rainfall in Pakistan from June 24
to July 23 was 10% to 15% heavier because of global warming.
In 2022, the country’s worst monsoon season on record killed more
than 1,700 people and caused an estimated $40 billion in damage.
___
Khan reported from Peshawar, Pakistan. Contributors from Pakistan
include Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Anwarullah Khan in Bajur, Abdul
Rehman in Gilgit, Rasool Dawar in Peshawar and Ishfaq Hussain in
Muzaffarabad.
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