Pakistan expresses solidarity with Nepal after floods kill over 150

A woman carrying a chair walks along a muddy street as the floodwater recedes from a residential area that was flooded by the overflowing Bagmati River following heavy rains in Katmandu, Nepal on September 29, 2024. (REUTERS)

• Nepal has shut schools for three days after two days of heavy rain triggered massive landslides and floods
• The floods brought traffic and normal activity to a standstill in Katmandu, where 37 deaths were recorded

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Sunday expressed solidarity with Nepal after floods and landslides killed more than 150 people, the Pakistani foreign office said.
Nepal has shut schools for three days after two days of heavy rain across the Himalayan nation triggered landslides and floods, officials said, with 56 people still missing.
The floods brought traffic and normal activity to a standstill in the Katmandu valley, where 37 deaths were recorded in a region home to 4 million people and the capital.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with all who have lost loved ones and livelihood in the floods,” the Pakistani foreign office said in a statement. “Pakistan stands in solidarity with the government and people of Nepal in this moment of tragedy.”
Television images showed police rescuers in knee-high rubber boots using picks and shovels to clear away mud and retrieve 16 bodies of passengers from two buses swept away by a massive landslide at a site on the key route into Katmandu.
Weather officials in the capital blamed the rainstorms on a low-pressure system in the Bay of Bengal extending over parts of neighboring India close to Nepal.
Heavy rains triggered flash floods and killed nearly 350 in Pakistan this monsoon season that began in late June, according to the country’s disaster management authority.
Pakistan and other countries in South Asia have seen erratic changes in weather patterns in recent years that scientists have blamed on climate change.
In 2022, unusually heavy rains triggered floods in many parts of Pakistan, killing over 1,700 people, inflicting economic losses of around $30 billion, and affecting at least 30 million people.