Islamabad, Feb. 28, (dpa/GNA) – Rescuers in Pakistan were scrambling on Wednesday to evacuate thousands from a coastal town after unsually heavy rainfall submerged the area.
Around 10,000 people from the city of Gwadar in the south-west of the country, near the country’s border with Iran, have already been brought to safety, a local authority spokesman told dpa.
The military, rescue agencies and paramilitary troops are involved in the evacuation mission, he added. No information on casualties or injuries is yet known.
According to the meteorological department in Pakistan, this is the heaviest rainfall in the city in about 15 years.
“More rain is expected in the town from Friday,” he added, saying that climate change was evidently behind the unusually heavy, untimely rains.
“Such heavy rains in winters are very unusual in this part of the world.”
It is expected to continue raining in the coming days.
According to the authorities, further evacuations can then be expected. Residents would then have to be supplied with food and medicine.
Pakistan is among the 10 most vulnerable countries to the climate change, despite the South Asian nation’s almost zero contribution in the global carbon omission, according to the United Nations.
Record flooding in 2022 killed some 1,800 people when at least a quarter of the country, more than the size of Britain, was submerged by water gushing from Himalayas after heavy rains.
GNA