PESHAWAR: Rain-related incidents claimed the lives of two men in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Thursday, increasing the death toll across the province to nine over the last 24 hours, authorities said.

Two deaths from a roof collapse incident in Mansehra took the number of lives lost since July 1 to nine, data from the KP Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) showed.

Two members of a family were killed and two others sustained critical injuries after a house collapsed in Dela Sharan area of Balakot in the early hours of Thursday.

“The incident occurred in a remote mountainous area. It took us around 12 hours of travelling on foot and by road to transport the injured to a health facility,” District Emergency Officer Ibrar Ali told reporters.

Two members of family killed in Balakot house collapse

He said the house collapsed due to heavy rainfall accompanied by strong winds and thunderstorms. The four family members, who had migrated to their seasonal settlement along with their livestock, were buried under the debris.

“Local residents rushed to the scene and, after hours of strenuous efforts, managed to retrieve all four people from the rubble,” Mr Ali said.

He said that Khan Mohammad, 45, and Ali Asghar, 35, succumbed to their injuries shortly after being pulled from the debris.

“We shifted Taj Mohammad and Ranga to King Abdullah Teaching Hospital Mansehra after a difficult 12-hour journey on foot and by four-wheelers and ambulances. Doctors admitted both of them as they were in critical condition,” Mr Ali said.

He added that the bodies of the deceased were shifted to their native villages in Darband and Oghi areas after the completion of medico-legal formalities.

On the other hand, providing a breakdown of the total deaths since Wednesday, PDMA said they included four men, four children and a woman. Meanwhile, the 23 injured people included 11 men, as many minors and a woman.

Two lives were lost each in Khyber and Mansehra, while Buner, Haripur, Nowshera, Shangla and Upper Dir saw one death each.

Five of those injured were from Lower Dir, and four each from Bajaur, Khyber, Mansehra and Mardan. A woman was wounded in Nowshera, while a child was hurt in Shangla.

While a police officer had said 21 female students were injured in a stampede after lightning struck near their seminary in Upper Dir, a PDMA report said they had fallen unconscious and no injury was reported, excluding the incident from its figures.

Also, a total of 163 cattle perished, including 138 in Lower Chitral and 25 in Upper Dir, the PDMA said.

The rainfall impacted infrastructure as well, with Lower Chitral accounting for 30 of the total 41 damaged houses. Two were fully damaged, while 28 were partially affected in the district, which saw flash floods caused by heavy rain.

Six houses were fully or partially damaged in Shangla, while three were partially impacted in Upper Chitral.

Lower Chitral witnessed torrential rainfall and a cloudburst in the Osaik area of Drosh tehsil, resulting in a flash flood, the PDMA stated in an earlier update.

As a result, 27 houses were damaged, along with two mosques, two shops, a pedestrian bridge, two vehicles and two motorcycles.

Flash floods caused by heavy rain also occurred in Upper Chitral, Haripur and Shangla, while lightning strikes were reported from Khyber, Bajaur, Buner and Upper Dir.

In Lower Dir, Mardan, Nowshera and Shangla, heavy rains coupled with gusty winds caused wall collapses and trees and solar panels to fall.

A statement issued by PDMA at 10am, citing data from the PMD, said 40 millimetres (mm) of rainfall was recorded in Kakul during the last 24 hours, 35mm in Malam Jabba, 30mm in Bajaur’s Pashat, 25mm in Balakot, 15mm in Bajaur’s Khaar, 16mm in Parachinar and Mamad Gut each, 10mm in Timergara, 6mm in Dera Ismail Khan airport area, and 4mm in Pattan.

Peshawar witnessed traces of rain, while Dir, Saidu Sharif and Cherat reported 1mm each.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2026