ISLAMABAD: The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said on Saturday that rescuers with boats and helicopters had evacuated about 50,000 people from south Punjab after raging floods inundated hundreds of villages there.

The NDMA in a statement said that death toll from rains and flooding in Punjab and other parts of the country had reached 346.

It said floodwaters wreaked havoc in the Punjab province and were now passing through remote areas in Sindh, but so far no deaths had been reported there.

Death toll from natural calamity reaches 346

Medical teams in flood-hit areas have so far treated more than 300,000 patients, it said. The statement said that authorities were busy in what is one of the country’s biggest relief and rescue operations in recent years.

They are using 19 army helicopters and hundreds of boats to transport people to safe places.

The floods have affected 1.7 million people apart from damaging standing crops in vast areas. Officials say they are still trying to assess the extent of damage caused by floods and rains to schools and other infrastructure.

Published in Dawn, September 21th, 2014