Floodings leave over 250 people dead

More than 250 people dead in flooding across AsiaBy Eve Bower, Sophia Saifi and Shelby Lin Erdman,CNNSeptember 6, 2014 — Updated 1404 GMT (2204 HKT)A man carries his luggage on a wooden log as he moves to a safer location in a flooded area in Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir, on Sunday, September 7.Kashmiri residents walk along an embankment on the side of a bridge as they head for a higher ground on the outskirts of Srinagar, India, on Saturday, September 6.

A child looks on as his family cleans their home after flooding in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on September 6.Residents cross a damaged bridge after flooding in Islamabad on September 6.Pakistani children play in a road flooded after heavy rain in Lahore, Pakistan, on Friday, September 5. Rickshaw drivers transport commuters through floodwaters on September 5 in Gauhati, India.Trucks stranded by flash flooding wait for the Jammu-Srinagar national highway to open on the outskirts of Jammu, India, on September 5. A man carries his son through floodwaters in Gauhati, India, on Friday, September 5.A woman cries as she looks over a flooded road in Srinagar, India, on September 5.Pakistani army soldiers rescue residents from a flooded area on the outskirts of Islamabad on September 5.People wade through floodwaters on September 5 on the outskirts of Srinagar, India.Floodwaters inch higher on a bridge on September 5 in Jammu, Indian-controlled Kashmir.An injured woman is loaded into an ambulance after being rescued from a flooded area of Islamabad, Pakistan, on September 5.People struggle to pass through floodwaters Thursday, September 4, in Srinagar.People ride on a horse-drawn cart through floodwaters in Lahore, Pakistan, on September 4.Residents watch water levels rise on the banks of the River Tawi in Jammu, india on September 4.Motorcycles and vehicles move through flooded streets on September 4 in Lahore, Pakistan.An Indian one-horned rhinoceros and its calf wade through floodwaters at a submerged area of the Pobitora wildlife sanctuary in India on Wednesday, August 27.Commuters watch a wild elephant cross a highway as it tries to escape to a higher ground after floodwaters submerged large areas of Kaziranga National Park, a wildlife reserve in India, on Monday, August 25.A boy tries to take his cattle to a safer place in Burhaburhi, India, on August 25.Houses in Balimukh, India, are flooded on Sunday, August 17.Indian police patrol the flooded River Ganga in Allahabad on Tuesday, August 12.People flee submerged huts on the flooded banks of the Ganga river in Allahabad on Friday, August 8.HIDE CAPTION

• NEW: Ministry: 43 die due to flooding over the past week
• The death toll is climbing in severe flooding across Asia
• More than 100 people have died in Pakistan in recent days, authorities say
• Villages and infrastructure in India damaged or washed away by flooding

(CNN) — Severe flooding from an intense monsoon season has left more than 250 people dead and hundreds more homeless across parts of South Asia and China. Dozens more have been injured or are missing.

In Pakistan, flash flooding has killed 110 people and injured nearly 150 others in recent days, authorities said Saturday.

India also is coping with severe flooding, which has claimed the lives of at least 97 peoplein Indian-administered Kashmir,Vinod Koul, state relief and rehabilitation commissioner, told CNN on Saturday.

And in southwestern China, more than 40 people have died and 18 others are missing after heavy rains and flooding over the past week, authorities said.

The hardest-hit areas in Pakistan include Punjab, the country’s most populous province, and Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

Deadly floods hit Asia

Lahore and Rawalpindi, major cities in Punjab, are experiencing serious flooding.

The flooding has destroyed 650 homes in Pakistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s office said.

The Pakistani government reported Friday that up to a foot of rainhad fallen in eastern parts of the country within the past day.

Some flood victims died from collapsing roofs or electrocution by downed power lines, officials said.

Sharif will attend a meeting Saturday to review the “situation in the country and damage caused to life and property by incessant rains and resulting floods,” a statement said.

In India, more than 2,000 villages have been affected in the Kashmir and Jammu region, Koul said. The severe flooding has also damaged or completely washed away dozens of bridges and hundreds of kilometers of road, he added. Power and water systems have been crippled by themonsoons as well.

Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday toured the devastated area near the state capital of Srinagar, assuring residents that relief is on the way.

The state government has undertaken a massive rescue and relief operation, but residents have complained of inadequate or delayed responses from authorities in the hardest-hit areas. The Indian army is also taking part in the rescue and relief operation.

Some 5,000 people have been rescued from the flood zone as of Saturday, according tothe Ministry of Defence.

The agency also said the army had rescued seven of nine soldiers trapped by floodwaters after their boat capsized south of Srinagar. Efforts to rescue two more personnel were under way Saturday.

CNN-IBN reported the area is experiencing the worst flooding in six decades.

In China, heavy rain has so far claimed the lives of 43 people over the past week, the country’s Civil Affairs Ministry reported Sunday morning.

Damage estimates have exceeded 3.3 billion yuan (more than $530 million).

In Thailand, the state-run MCOT news agency reported that authorities urged residents along waterways in the country’s central region to move to higher ground. The risk of flooding increased there after a decision to release more water from a dam to reduce water levels in the flood-hit north, MCOT reported.

Heavy rains also caused extensive flooding in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, South Korea and Japan last month.

CNN’s Jethro Mullen, Mukhtar Ahmad, Michael Pearson, Kevin Wang and Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.