Families stranded in Kumrat due to flood appeal for rescue

SWAT (Dunya News) – Families stranded in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) Kumrat Valley due to flash floods have appealed to the government to expedite rescue operations as they were running out of food and drinking water.

Trapped tourists include women and minor children. These families have been stranded in Kumrat for the past 48 hours, where they have taken shelter in a tent.

In a video statement, the female tourist said that the flow of the river has become very fast on both sides of the valley and all the connecting bridges have been swept away due to continuous rain, while landslides were also occurring.

“It is getting colder here, while we have very little food and drinking water,” she said and added there is no way to come and go from here, so we have taken shelter in the forest of Kumrat.

The distressed trapped tourists appealed to the concerned authorities for rescue by helicopter or any other means as the situation is getting worse.

Army rescues families

On the other hand, the Pakistan Army troops rescued families stranded in Kumrat area of Swat due to flash flood and requested the masses to avoid visiting Swat and it’s surrounding areas amid prevailing floods.

The Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on the direction of Corps Commander Peshawar, the Corps troops established a contact for the search of few families from Islamabad who got stranded in Kumrat due to sudden flash flood.

Some 22 people were evacuated through helicopter whereas some families went on hills and could not be evacuated due to bad weather.

However, continuous contact was maintained with them and those families were shifted to safer places around those mountain tops.

“Those people are safe and will be evacuated by army aviation helicopters as and when weather permits. A ground party is also ready from Khaweza Khela for evacuation.”

The ISPR urged that the people were requested not to travel towards Swat and surrounding areas due to flash floods.