PESHAWAR: Flash floods and torrential rains wreaked havoc in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and tribal areas on Wednesday.

At least 50 people were killed and a large number of houses and bridges were destroyed. Several schools, roads and mosques in northern parts of the province were washed away.

Shangla, Dera Ismail Khan, Swat, Tank and North Waziristan Agency were the worst affected areas. Large areas were cut off in different parts of the province.

Gas supply from Gurguri oil and gas field in Karak district to Punjab and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was suspended after hill torrents damaged the main transmission line near Yaqobi Kalla, an official of the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Company said.

Hundreds of houses in low-lying areas were partially damaged. An official of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) in Peshawar said that relief goods had been sent to some areas.

He said that 124 houses were completely or partially damaged in southern districts.
The PDMA issued warnings to the administration of all 24 districts in the province to prepare themselves for any emergency.

Officials said that 21 people were killed in rain-related incidents in Shangla district where heavy floods and landsliding damaged dozens of houses. Among the victims were nine members of one family, including women and children.

They died when their house in Daire union council collapsed. Two deaths were reported from Yakh Tangi and four monkey trainers drowned in Banda area.

Flash floods also played havoc in North Waziristan, killing nine people and injuring several others. Houses collapsed and power supply in many areas of was suspended.

Officials said that two people were killed in Tank and two deaths were reported from Karak.

Police said that five children were killed and four others injured when a makeshift shelter collapsed in Badbar area of Peshawar. Rainwater submerged low-lying areas of the provincial capital which got 55 millimetres of showers in 24 hours.

Three people were killed in Khyber Agency and a school building collapsed due to soil erosion. The Swat River is in high flood. Officials reported three deaths in Mingora.

Twenty houses and a primary school were swept away in Bahrain area of Swat. Widespread rainfall also caused devastation in Mansehra and Battagram districts where seven people, three of them women, were killed.

Three people died in Mardan and Charsadda in rain-related incidents. Heavy rains inundated over 200 houses and buildings in Bannu district. Authorities sent three ambulances and medicines to the affected areas.