500,000 flee floods

RIVERS were swelling to dangerous levels in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province, forcing more than half-a-million people to flee their homes in the past 24 hours, officials said on Thursday.

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The latest evacuations bring the total number of people displaced since last month to 1.8 million, according to Punjab relief commissioner Nabeel Javed. He said mass evacuations were still ongoing in the flood-hit Muzaffargarh district and other areas.

Muzaffargarh and Multan are among the worst-hit areas in the province, where floods have inundated 3,900 villages since the Ravi, Sutlej and Chenab rivers burst their banks two weeks ago, Mr Javed said. People who fled their homes in Muzaffargarh described rushing to safety after urgent flood warnings.