Flooding leads to 49 deaths in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD — Lightning and heavy rains have killed at least 49 people across Pakistan in the past three days, officials said Monday, and authorities in the country’s southwest declared a state of emergency.

Some deaths occurred when lightning struck farmers harvesting wheat. Rains caused dozens of houses to collapse in the northwest and in eastern Punjab province.

Arfan Kathia, a spokesman for the provincial disaster management authority, said 21 people had died in Punjab, where more rains were expected this week. Khursheed Anwar, a spokesman for the disaster management authority in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, said 21 people died there.

Rain also lashed the capital, Islamabad, and killed seven people in southwestern Baluchistan province. Streets flooded in the northwestern city of Peshawar and in Quetta, the Baluchistan capital.

Rafay Alam, a Pakistani environmental expert, said such heavy April rainfall is unusual.

(AP/Muhammad Sajjad) Youngsters wade through a flooded street caused by heavy rain in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Monday.