Lahore: Heavy spells of torrential rain that broke a 30-year-old record here in the provincial capital of Pakistan’s Punjab province have claimed at least 11 lives, according to local media reports.
Lahore received over 290 mm of rain on Wednesday within a span of 10 hours, Geo News reported.
The metropolis received 291mm of rain, during which more than a dozen areas recorded more than 200mm of rain, Commissioner Lahore Mohammad Ali Randhawa said.
“Earlier this year, Lahore received the maximum rainfall of 256 mm on June 26 while last year, 238mm of rain was recorded in Lahore,” Randhawa said, citing climate change as one of the possible reasons for the heavy rains.
The commissioner said that in 2018, 288mm of rain was recorded in Lahore, adding the city has not received so much rain in such a short period of time in the last 30 years.
At least four people including three children under the age of 10 died on Thursday and 15 others were injured in two separate incidents of roof and wall collapses in Lahore, the Dawn newspaper reported.
On Wednesday, seven people died in which three people were electrocuted, three died after roofs collapsed, and a child drowned after rainwater accumulation.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has issued a warning of heavy rain from July 6-8 that may cause urban flooding and trigger landslides in different parts of the country.
“Heavy rain may cause urban flooding in low-lying areas of Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Attock, Gujranwala, Lahore, Sialkot, Multan, and Dera Ismail Khan from July 6-8.” It further warned that the heavy rain “may trigger landslides in the vulnerable areas of Murree, Galliyat, Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan and hilly areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa”.
The Flood Forecasting Division (FFD) also warned on Thursday that heavy rainfall may lead to a “very high to exceptionally high level” of flooding in River Chenab between July 8-10.
Very high to exceptionally high-level flooding is expected in River Chenab while the flood situation in rivers Ravi and Sutlej will depend upon releases from India, it said.
The monsoon season runs from July to September in Pakistan. Last year’s catastrophic floods inundated a third of Pakistan with the southern province of Sindh and the southwestern region of Balochistan being the worst hit.
The deadly floods killed over 1,200 people and rendered millions of others without food and shelter.
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