Residents stand near their damaged huts after flash floods in southern Baluchistan province. (Reuters)

QUETTA, Pakistan, February 12 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Pakistan launched Saturday, February 12, a huge relief operation for thousands of people stricken by torrential rains, floods and avalanches, with the death toll hitting more than 230.

At least 71 people were killed and 500 others confirmed missing after a dam burst and swept whole villages into the sea following the country's worst deluge in 16 years, reported Reuters quoting local officials.

Officials said 6,000 army, paramilitary and navy troops had been mobilized to help rescue efforts in the remote province of Baluchistan.

One military official in Quetta, the provincial capital, said two army transport planes were flying in later on Saturday carrying food, blankets, tents and other emergency supplies.

He said at least 70 trucks carrying relief assistance had also been dispatched to the affected areas.

Using helicopters and boats, the army and navy had rescued 1,450 people in the worst-hit villages of Sindhi Puso, Turati, Kurki, Zar Khor and Sharnu Bazar, provincial minister for coastal areas Sher Jan told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

But rescue efforts were being hampered because floodwater also wiped out 40 kilometers (24 miles) of the coastal highway as well as a number of bridges and some minor roads.

The 25-meter-high, 147-meter-long Shadi Kor dam near the coastal town of Pasni, located some 800 km (500 miles) south of Quetta, was built in 2003 at a cost of 45 million rupees (758,853 dollars) and used for irrigation. It was full when it burst Thursday, February 10.

Officials said at least five villages, home to around 7,000 people, had been submerged by waters pouring from the ruptured dam.

Parts of Pasni were under a meter (3 ft) of water, and tents had been put up on higher ground for the displaced families.

“The people who have taken shelter on their rooftops have been picked up and provided shelter in the government buildings,” said an official at Baluchistan's Crisis Control Cell.

More than 40 people have been killed in other rain-affected parts of the province, according to Reuters.

Four thousand people living near the Akra Caur Dam supplying water to nearby Gawadar port had also been evacuated as water levels passed danger limits, officials said.

“People have taken shelter on nearby high ground and helicopters are lifting them from there,” said Bashir Baluch, a resident of Gawadar, describing the situation in Suntsar, a small town between Pasni and Gawadar.

Killer Avalanches

A Pakistani man mourns the death of his grandsons who were killed by heavy rainfall. (Reuters)

Elsewhere in Pakistan, newspaper reports said 97 people had been killed and many were missing after torrential rains and heavy snowfall hit the North West Frontier Province, reported Reuters.

Most of the deaths were due to avalanches, flash floods or roof collapses.

Six people were killed and nine injured by falling ice and rock from a glacier in Mankial Balakot in the remote Swat Valley of North West Frontier Province, local officials said.

There was no word on the fate of some 30 soldiers caught in an avalanche in the province's Teerah valley.

Police in Pakistan-held Kashmir said 37 people were buried under an avalanche in Mathian village in the Neelam Valley.

Four injured had been found but the rest were still unaccounted for.

In the Leepa Valley, also in Kashmir, one child out of a family of six survived when an avalanche struck their house.

Authorities in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-held Kashmir, evacuated homes on the city's outskirts as a precaution against possible landslides as the rain continued to pour down.

Eight people were killed when an avalanche hit some 25 houses on Friday in Astore valley of Gilgit district, police said.

Weather officials said the length of the rainy spell, which began on February 3, appeared to be a record for Pakistan and showed no sign of letting up.

“This is the first time that the rain has continued over such a long period,” Chaudhry Qamruz Zaman, director general of the Meteorological Department, told AFP.

Heavy rain is expected to continue for at least the next two days.