ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Floods driven by record-breaking rainfall have killed at least 800 people and destroyed thousands of homes over the past week, officials said Saturday, in the latest disaster to test Pakistan’s already strained government.
The crisis comes as the government is struggling to fight an Islamic insurgency and to cope with the aftermath of Wednesday’s plane crash in which 152 people died in the fog- and rain-shrouded Himalayan foothills just outside this capital city. It was the deadliest domestic plane crash in Pakistan’s history.
Officials said the deluge was the worst since 1929 in northwest Pakistan, where water levels in dams continued to rise. And with more rain forecast for all but that part of the country, increasing the likelihood of more flash floods and landslides, government officials issued pleas for international aid.
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