11 bodies have been found so far while rescue crews are still looking for three tourists who went missing after being washed away by flash floods in the Swat River, according to media reports on Saturday.
Shahzad Mehboob, Deputy Commissioner Swat, reported that 17 people were stranded near the riverbank when the water suddenly surged.
Ten of the victims were from Daska, Punjab; six were from Mardan; and one was from Swat, according to DC Mehboob.
He affirmed that three people have been successfully rescued and that search and rescue efforts are still underway to find the other three missing tourists, two of whom are from Punjab and one from Mardan.
Rescue officials say the affected people, who were from Punjab, were on a leisure trip and were eating breakfast by the riverbank at about 8 a.m. when heavy rains upstream caused the water flow to unexpectedly and quickly increase.
“We were informed about the drowning incident around 8am. The victims were tourists sitting along the riverbank near the bypass, unaware of the sudden surge in water,” a rescue official stated.
Just last month, at least 24 people lost their lives due to powerful storms across Pakistan, which has recently witnessed a series of severe weather events, including intense hailstorms during the spring.
Pakistan remains among the countries most vulnerable to climate change, with its population of 240 million increasingly exposed to extreme and unpredictable weather conditions.
Additionally, Pakistan Meteorological department has predicted more rains with flood risks in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
