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Fresh flooding in southern Pakistan has displaced almost a million people in the past 48 hours, the UN has said.
In Sindh province, 70% of the 300,000 residents of the town of Thatta have been forced to flee to safer areas after the Indus river burst its banks. A UN spokeswoman said teams in the south were working around the clock. Further north, floodwaters are starting to recede, revealing the full extent of the damage caused by the disaster that has affected some 17 million people.
A BBC correspondent joined a US military helicopter crew as they flew over a town in the Swat Valley and said roads and bridges had completely disappeared, leaving whole communities cut off. Meanwhile, the UN said it was reviewing security for its staff after US officials warned that militants planned to attack foreign aid workers. One Taliban spokesman told Associated Press news agency that the presence of foreign organisations was "unacceptable". However, there have been no attacks since the humanitarian crisis unfolded last month.
On Thursday night, the Pakistani authorities ordered people to leave several towns and cities in the south of the country as a flood surge breached more embankments on the Indus river. Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said low-lying areas of Sindh province would remain under water for the next two weeks or more. Out of its 23 districts, 19 have so far been badly affected by the floods.
Fresh flooding in southern Pakistan has displaced almost a million people in the past 48 hours, the UN has said.
In Sindh province, 70% of the 300,000 residents of the town of Thatta have been forced to flee to safer areas after the Indus river burst its banks. A UN spokeswoman said teams in the south were working around the clock. Further north, floodwaters are starting to recede, revealing the full extent of the damage caused by the disaster that has affected some 17 million people.
A BBC correspondent joined a US military helicopter crew as they flew over a town in the Swat Valley and said roads and bridges had completely disappeared, leaving whole communities cut off. Meanwhile, the UN said it was reviewing security for its staff after US officials warned that militants planned to attack foreign aid workers. One Taliban spokesman told Associated Press news agency that the presence of foreign organisations was "unacceptable". However, there have been no attacks since the humanitarian crisis unfolded last month.
On Thursday night, the Pakistani authorities ordered people to leave several towns and cities in the south of the country as a flood surge breached more embankments on the Indus river. Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said low-lying areas of Sindh province would remain under water for the next two weeks or more. Out of its 23 districts, 19 have so far been badly affected by the floods.
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