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| June 26, 2005 | Sunday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 18, 1426 |
Melting snow causes Saiful Malook lake to overflow
MANSEHRA, June 25: Residents of Naran in Kaghan valley fled their homes in panic on Friday night after melting snow from mountains caused an overflow in Lake Saiful Malook sending torrents of water to Naran Bazaar. Eyewitnesses said that the people, mostly women and children, started leaving for other parts of the country in panic, and added that within minutes the tourist resort of Naran was giving a deserted look.
They said that some people started making announcements from loudspeakers at mosques asking the people residing alongside the River Kunhar to vacate their houses and leave for safer places.
The witnesses stated that this spread further panic among the people as soon those residing in Naraah, Taranna, Hassa, Shohal Mohezullah, Bissian, Gul Sairi, Jageer, Kashtara, Sairi, Karnol and Batsung started leaving their houses during the night.
On being contacted, the official on duty in the Naran police post told this correspondent that people became panicky as soon as water from the Saiful Malook Lake started overflowing and flooding the Naran Bazaar.
The official said that tourists started leaving the area immediately but soon the situation became normal.
He said that the incident caused no damage to property as soon as the flow of water started receding.
It may be mentioned here that about 16 feet of snowfall had been recorded in the months of January and February this year in Kaghan valley and other mountainous areas of the district.
As the areas of Hazara this summer are in the grip of an unprecedented heat wave, the rapidly thawing snow in the mountains is causing a rise in the water level of the rivers thus making the areas lying alongside the rivers more prone to floods.
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