Principal Saeed Ahmad’s swift order on Friday saved nearly 900 students in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Swat minutes before surging waters demolished the school.

“It was exactly 9am when I had a last glance at the stream and sensed it was going to burst its banks due to continuing rains,” Ahmad, 59, the school’s principal, told Anadolu. Ahmad ordered an immediate evacuation of nearly 950 enrolled students.

Within 15 minutes, the children and teachers had left. Minutes later, torrents of water smashed into the school, washing away half the building, its boundary walls and the playground.

“Around 900 students were present on August 15 when the flood struck our village and other adjoining areas,” said Sarwar Khan, a local councillor. “This timely action by the principal saved 900 lives.”

The school was one of dozens of educational institutions destroyed in floods that have wreaked havoc across several districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killing more than 350 people in the past three days, officials said.

Ahmad, who has served as principal for 12 years, recalled that the same building was destroyed during floods in July 1995. “There were summer vacations; that’s why there was no casualty,” he said. “That incident was in my mind when I decided to evacuate.”

The monsoon season brings South Asia about three-quarters of its annual rainfall, vital for agriculture and food security, but also brings destruction.

“The intensity of this year’s monsoon is around 50 to 60pc more than last year,” said Lieutenant General Inam Haider, chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

“Two to three more monsoon spells are expected until the first weeks of September,” he told journalists in Islamabad.

Landslides and flash floods are common during the season, which usually begins in June and eases by the end of September. The torrential rains that have pounded Pakistan since the start of the summer monsoon have killed 657 people, with 929 injured, according to daily data from the NDMA.

Pakistan is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change and is contending with extreme weather events with increasing frequency. In 2022, catastrophic floods submerged one-third of the country, killing over 1,700 people and causing an estimated $32 billion in damage.