GILGIT, Aug 7 Sixty-three people were killed when heavy rain coupled with lightning and subsequent flash floods and landslides wreaked havoc in Gilgit-Baltistan on Saturday.

Police DIG Wazir Mohammad Ali told Dawn by phone that at least 58 people were killed and scores of others injured in Baltistan.

The rain triggered landslides that washed away 28 houses and buried 45 people in Qumara village, some 30km south of Skardu.

The DIG said that the bodies of eight people had been recovered so far and the others were still missing.

Official sources said that rescue and search operation for the missing had been stopped after nightfall.

The DIG said that 13 people had been killed in a landslide in Talis village, in Mashabrum subdivision of Ghanche district. Six of them have been recovered.

He said the army had been called out and troops were being assisted by police, local volunteers and government officials. However, the inclement weather was hampering efforts to recover the bodies.

The officials said that a bridge was destroyed and traffic was suspended between Skardu and the rest of the country.

He said that army helicopters had evacuated those who had survived and they were shifted to a state-run school in Gamba.

Five people were killed in Diamer district.

Diamer Deputy Commissioner Sibtain Ahmed said that flash floods had killed three people in Bonar valley and two in Tangir valley.

He said that the flood in the Indus damaged suspension bridge between Khinar and Dudishal valleys and the area had been cut off from the rest of the country.

The sources said that the flood destroyed 40 houses in various villages of Ghizer district. Two bridges were washed away in Ishkoman.

The floods destroyed a portion of the road that linked the area with the rest of the country.

The officials said standing corps and orchards were destroyed, inflicting heavy losses to the poverty-ridden people.

The Ghizer district had been cut off from the rest of the world because the road was also blocked after landslides at many places.

The Karakoram Highway remained blocked on the ninth consecutive day and parts of the region were suffering from shortage of essential commodities, including POL, vegetables, milk and other essential items.

Landslides and flash floods triggered by lightening also hit Gircha and Sarteez villages in Gojal Tehsil on the China border, displacing hundreds of people and destroying a bridge and crops.