At Least 220 Dead in Northwest Pakistan as Flash Floods and Landslides Devastate Buner District

People attend funeral prayers for the victims of Friday's flash flooding, at a village near Pir Baba, Buner district, in Pakistan's northwest, Saturday, Aug.16, 2025

Severe flash floods and landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains have killed at least 220 people in Pakistan’s northwest Buner district, as rescuers recovered 63 bodies overnight from homes destroyed by floodwaters and falling boulders.

The catastrophic flooding struck on Friday after sudden cloudbursts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, sweeping away dozens of homes in villages such as Pir Baba and Malik Pura. Emergency responders are still searching for survivors amid widespread destruction and massive rocks scattered across the devastated landscape.

People carry bodies of victims of Friday's flash flooding, after funeral prayers at a village near Pir Baba, Buner district, in Pakistan's northwest, Saturday, Aug.16, 2025

Eyewitnesses reported walls of water filled with hundreds of boulders and “tons of rocks” crashing through villages within minutes. Imtiaz Khan, a local police officer who narrowly escaped, said a stream near Pir Baba swelled without warning and destroyed 60 to 70 houses. “Our police station was washed away too and if we hadn’t climbed to higher ground, we would not have survived,” he said.

More than 541 people across Pakistan have died since June 26 due to rain-related incidents as the country continues to experience higher-than-normal monsoon rainfall, which officials and climate experts link to climate change. In Buner, many victims, including children and men, died before reaching medical facilities, according to local doctors.

Funeral services were held across affected areas on Saturday. Suleman Khan, a schoolteacher, said he lost 25 members of his extended family and survived only because he was away from his home when the floods hit.

Rescue workers transport the body a victim of Friday's flash flooding after recovering it from the rubble of a damaged house at Qadir Nagar village near Pir Baba, Buner district, in Pakistan's northwest, Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025

Provincial authorities have provided tents and food to the displaced, while hundreds of rescue workers remain in the district. Officials said more than 3,500 tourists have been evacuated from other flood-hit areas across Pakistan.

Elsewhere, around 300 kilometers away in Indian-controlled Kashmir, search operations continue in the remote village of Chositi in the Kishtwar district, where flash floods killed at least 60 people and injured 150, many of them critically, during an annual Hindu pilgrimage. Authorities have rescued over 300 people and evacuated approximately 4,000 pilgrims.

Cloudbursts and severe monsoon flooding are becoming increasingly common in Pakistan’s northern regions and India’s Himalayan areas, with officials warning that climate change is a major contributing factor. Pakistan experienced its most devastating monsoon season in 2022, resulting in more than 1,700 deaths and an estimated $40 billion in damages.