Heavy rain swept across the Himalayas, killing at least 36 people in India over the past 24 hours and forcing authorities to open major dams, in turn triggering flood alerts on three rivers in neighbouring Pakistan.
In the deadliest single disaster, a landslide killed 33 people near the Hindu mountain shrine of Vaishno Devi on a pilgrim route in Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.
Three more people died as floodwaters burst the banks of rivers in the district of Doda and swamped low-lying areas, authorities added.
About 200 children were stranded yesterday after flood water engulfed a school building in the northern state of Punjab, local media said.
Some highways linking Jammu to the rest of India were also damaged.
Across the border, flood water engulfed parts of Kartarpur Sahib, a famous Sikh temple in Pakistan’s Punjab, a rescue official said.
Pakistan has also battled monsoon rains in recent weeks, with more than 167,000 people displaced in Punjab, including 40,000 who left voluntarily after flood warnings since August 14.
The official death toll from Pakistan’s floods since the start of the monsoon season in late June stood at 804 yesterday, half of them in August.
Pakistan said it had received a warning from India about downstream flooding, and issued its own alert for three rivers flowing into its territory.
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