Rescuers race to reach thousands stranded by rains in Pakistan

Rescuers were battling Monday to reach thousands of people stranded by floods and landslides in Pakistan's northwest and parts of Kashmir, officials said, as the death toll rose to 61. Disaster management officials in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where 51 people have died since the downpour began Saturday night, said bad weather was hampering the rescue and relief operation. A spokesman for the Authority said that rescue workers had not been able to reach three affected districts in the far-flung mountainous north of the province. In Pakistan-administered Kashmir's Neelum Valley, officials said thousands were stranded by landslides. At least ten people, including five children, died there when two houses were buried in a landslide caused by the rains. Mainly dry weather was expected in most parts of Pakistan from Monday, according to the meteorological department's website, though thunderstorms were still predicted for Kashmir. Severe weather hits Pakistan annually, and in recent years hundreds have been killed and huge tracts of prime farmland were destroyed.