A man holds hailstones after heavy rain in Peshawar on Saturday. AP

Heavy rains killed ten people, mostly children, and injured 12 in Pakistan’s northwest, an official said on Sunday.

Downpours in different districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province caused rooms to collapse, crushing the people inside, according to Anwar Shahzad, a spokesperson for the local disaster management authority.

Shahzad said that three of the dead were siblings aged between 3 and 7 years old, from the same family. The casualties occurred in the past 24 hours, he added.

According to Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) report during rain related incidents 8 children and two women died while among the 12 injured include two women and a child. Moreover, several houses collapsed or sustained partial damage due to the heavy rains, accompanied by an unusual hailstorm.

The hailstorm also caused damage to numerous vehicles, windowpanes, and solar panels installed on rooftops. According to officials from Rescue 1122, three people died in Bannu when the wall of their house collapsed.

In the Banda Cheena area of Shangla district, two children died and another was injured when the house of Aitbar Khan collapsed due to rain. Rescue 1122 officials promptly responded to the incident, transporting the injured child, Razia, to the District Headquarters Hospital in Alpuri, Shangla district.  Additionally, two children were killed in a roof collapse incident in Besham tehsil of the district a day earlier.

In Nawagai tehsil in Bajaur district of KP, a woman and her daughter died, while her husband and two-year-old son were injured when the roof of their mud house collapsed.

Police officials and Rescue 1122 personnel rushed to the spot, pulling out the dead and injured from the debris and transporting them to a nearby hospital.

Moreover, several people were wounded in Peshawar, Nowshera, Shangla, Bannu, and other areas.

KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur instructed the administration across the province to expedite relief and rescue operations in the affected areas. Many roads in Peshawar remained flooded after the hailstorm and heavy rain, leading to severe traffic congestion in almost all parts of the city.

Agencies