Pakistan Dam Rupture Killed 135

Troops and rescue workers have recovered 135 bodies of people killed after a dam burst in southwestern Pakistan, officials said Saturday, as the toll elsewhere in the country from a week of heavy rain and snow mounted steadily.

The 485-foot-long Shakidor Dam burst late Thursday near the town of Pasni in Baluchistan province, about 120 miles from the Iranian border. The torrent of water washed away homes, swept vehicles into the Arabian Sea and destroyed telephone lines, roads and eight bridges, officials and witnesses said.

“So far, Pakistan army, navy and coast guards have pulled out 135 bodies from floodwaters in the districts of Pasni, Turbat and Awaran,” said Mohammed Ilyas, a crisis management official in Quetta.

He said about 500 people were still missing, and many were sheltering in mountains around Pasni.

Elsewhere, as many as 85 people were killed in the last week when the roofs of their homes collapsed amid heavy rains and avalanches, the state-run Emergency Relief Agency said.

Police reported Saturday that a roof collapsed after rains in Swat, killing three people and injuring nine others.

Police official Ataullah Wazir said 17 people also died Saturday in Kohistan and other areas in the North West Frontier Province.

Troops and police raced to two villages in the Pakistan-controlled part of the Himalayan territory of Kashmir on Saturday after avalanches buried several homes, killing at least 38 people, said Tahir Mahmood Qureshi, a senior police officer in the area.