QUETTA, June 7: Almost four hundred passengers on board seven coaches were marooned as flood waters whipped across the plains of southern Balochistan on Thursday in the wake of Gonu cyclone.

Heavy rains and gusty winds cut a swathe through Gwadar, Turbat, Dasht, Mand and Tump, destroying hundreds of houses.

“Seven coaches are stuck in Talar, near Gwadar, since Wednesday,” a senior official told Dawn from Turbat. He said rescue teams would go to the area once the waters receded.

In Dasht, the administration asked people of 10 villages to move to safer places as the newly-constructed Mirani dam threatened to overflow after driving rains lashed the region on Thursday.

“The water level in the Mirani dam has risen to 75 metres — just three metres below the danger mark,” Executive District Officer Sohail-ur-Rehman told Dawn.