39 killed, 135 injured as rain continues across country

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Met Office forecasts mild to heavy rain in Karachi today

At least 39 people were killed and 135 people were injured as rain continued to wreak havoc in Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the National Disaster Management Authority said on Wednesday.

At least 80 houses have been damaged as torrential rain continued to play havoc across the country, the National Disaster Management Authority added.

In Faisalabad, the heavy rain spell caused interrupted power supply, after technical faults occurred in 110 electricity supply feeders, a FESCO spokesman told APP.

Jhang, Gojra, Sammundri, Tandlianwala, Sargodha and their peripheral areas were among those which suffered power shortage, he said, adding field staff worked actively and restored electricity supply from all feeders after rain.

In the last 24 hours, the MET office has recorded 57mm rain in Islamabad, 24mm rain in Rawalpindi, 43mm rain in Lahore, 40mm in Gujranwala and 16mm in Peshawar.

According to the MET office, more widespread dust-thunderstorm and rain accompanied by gusty winds is expected in Punjab, Islamabad, Kashmir and at scattered places in KP.

Rain is also expected at isolated places in Quetta, Zhob, Sibi, Kalat, Sukkur, Larkana divisions and Gilgit Baltistan, the MET office added.

A day earlier, nine people, including two children, were killed in flash floods in different areas of Balochistan. Three others were injured in the floods.