Wednesday, 19  February 2003  
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Twenty die as rains hit Pakistan, Afghanistan

KARACHI, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Heavy rains and violent winds lashed Pakistan and Afghanistan on Monday, killing at least 20 people, including six children, and injuring more than 100, officials and rescue workers said.

Nine people, including two children, were killed and at least 36 were hurt in three districts of Pakistan's Baluchistan province. On the outskirts of the provincial capital, Quetta, dozens of homes were destroyed when flood waters swept away a small dam.

Officials said seven people were thought to have been killed and 22 were hurt when a passenger bus was swept off a hill 200 km (125 miles) northwest of Karachi on Monday morning. They said five bodies had been recovered from the flood waters.

Flood waters also swept away three children in southern Afghanistan near the southwestern city of Kandahar and closed the main road linking the city and the Pakistani border.

Local security official Mohammad Afza said the children drowned in the Takhta Pul area near Kandahar.

Pakistani officials said three people died in two separate accidents on the outskirts of the southern port city of Karachi when the roofs of their houses caved in.

Heavy rain and wind ripped the roofs of scores of huts built of straw, mud and wooden planks in two villages 30 to 50 km (18 to 30 miles) north of Karachi, injuring more than 40 people, they added.

One girl was killed and four of her family members injured when their house collapsed in Pakistan-controlled part of Kashmir, police said.

In Hyderabad, 160 km (100 miles) north of Karachi, two people were killed and at least 30 were injured when homes collapsed and another two died in a nearby village when they were struck by lightning, police said.

"We have declared an emergency in Hyderabad, where 80 percent of the neighbourhoods are inundated," said Mayor Makhdoom Rafique-uz Zaman.

"Education institutions have been closed for three days and relief work is in full in swing," he said.

Heavy rains have also hit the capital Islamabad in the north and Quetta in the east for the past two days.

Water was knee-deep in Quetta, severely disrupting traffic, and more rains was forecast in coming days.

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