Floods in Pakistan: 15 million victims, new evacuations

Pakistani officials were busy Saturday to evacuate hundreds of families cope with floods monsters which now reach the south and killed nearly 15 million people were affected while neighboring India is affected in turn.

In the south, particularly in Sindh province crossed by the Indus River, almost 3 million people are affected and one million have been evacuated, bringing to 15 million the total number of victims across the country, said the provincial authorities .

"There are areas where people do not want to leave their homes and abandon their property. We are forcing them to leave because it's their life," said Minister of Irrigation of Sindh, Jam Saifullah Dharejo.

"The water level along the river is unusually high and intermittent rains continue to descend," he added.

The Authority of Pakistan disaster management said Friday that 12 million people were already affected by floods in the provinces of Punjab alone (center) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (northwest).

The UN, which says face "needs impressive", said for his part that more than 4.5 million Pakistanis were affected by floods that have devastated entire villages and killed at least 1,600 dead in one week.

On Friday, in a televised address to the nation, Prime Minister of Pakistan, Yousuf Raza Gilani has appealed to the international community for immediate assistance to his country.

Weather services have scheduled two additional days of precipitation. A red alert is in force in the province of Sindh, faced with the threat "imminent" and "extreme" floods.

Heavy rains in the region have also caused extreme flooding in neighboring India, killing at least 115 dead and many more missing and at least 400 wounded in the Himalayan region of Ladakh, Kashmir (north), local police said while the research of missing resumed Saturday.