Renewed heavy rains have prevented rescuers from extracting dozens of bodies still buried in the mud, after an extreme monsoon season killed nearly 350 people in northern Pakistan . According to authorities, more than 200 residents of dozens of affected villages are still missing.

But since the start of relief operations, the rescuers' task has become even more complicated. On Friday, severe weather caused the crash of a government helicopter in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the province hardest hit by torrential rains, resulting in over 320 deaths, dozens injured, and damage that could deprive hundreds of families of homes, schools, and public services, possibly for months.

Authorities deployed two thousand rescuers for several days. But this morning, "the return of rain," one of them told AFP, "forced us to halt operations. To extract the dozens of bodies still trapped, we need construction equipment, but the passages that had been cleared have been obliterated by the rain, and no machinery can get close."

(Unioneonline)

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