40 perish after bridge collapse in Pakistan

PESHAWAR: At least 40 people were killed and many more were missing after a bridge collapsed in north-western Pakistan as seasonal rains flooded the area, police said on Sunday.

Ten bodies were retrieved from a flooded river overnight and on Sunday, police official Iftikhar Khan said, while 30 bodies were pulled out yesterday in Mardan town, some 50 km north-east of Peshawar.

He said troops had joined the rescue work and most of the city, including the hospitals, was inundated.

In remote northern Pakistan two people were killed when rain washed away Gais Pain village late yesterday, the regions's police chief Sarmad Saeed Khan said.

Dozens of people have died in landslides and floods caused by rain torrents in Pakistan over the past two days.