Death Toll in Pakistan Rises to 80

Coast guardsmen used fishing nets to retrieve bodies Friday in the coastal town of Pasni, where water rushing through a ruptured dam swept residents into the Arabian Sea.

The death toll rose to at least 80 and hundreds were missing. The dam breach was the worst of several disasters caused by extreme winter weather in Pakistan.

At least 32 soldiers were feared dead in the Tirah Valley in a mountainous region near the border with Afghanistan after an avalanche swept through the area, said an official with the military’s Office of Inter-Services Public Relations.

“Our 32 troops are missing in the snowbound valley and we are unable to establish any radio communication,” the official said. The army had found no trace of the men as of Friday, he said, and bad weather was hampering search operations. Sources said 12 feet of snow had fallen in the area in the last three weeks.

Other areas experienced heavy rain and flooding.

The 485-foot-long Shakidor Dam burst late Thursday near Pasni, in Baluchistan province about 120 miles from the Iranian border. The resulting torrent of water swept vehicles out to sea and destroyed telephone lines, roads and eight bridges, officials and witnesses said.

About 1,200 people were rescued, 500 evacuated and 400 remained missing, army spokesman Mudasser Butt said.

An estimated 3,000 troops backed by helicopters, coast guard cutters and C-130 transport planes reached Pasni on Friday with food, medicine and tents. Continued heavy rain has hampered the search for survivors, officials said.

The floodwater washed away crops and damaged homes in Nano village, but no casualties were reported, said resident Ilyas Khan, 32.

The water damaged much of the Karachi-Pasni highway, said an army officer guarding a broken bridge on the highway.