Flooding caused by monsoon rains has killed at least 430 people across Pakistan, according to an aid organization.TV Live .

At least 325 people dead in Pakistan flooding

From Reza Sayah, CNN
July 30, 2010 -- Updated 1025 GMT (1825 HKT)

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Flooding caused by monsoon rains has killed at least 430 people across Pakistan, according to an aid organization.

That toll includes 25 people killed in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, said Anwar Kazmi, spokesperson for Edhi Foundation. The hardest hit region was the northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, where 228 people have died, he said.

Many of the victims died when floodwaters swept away hundreds of mud houses in parts of Swat Valley and the districts of Shangla and Tank, according to Bashir Ahmed Bilour, a provincial minister in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

The rushing waters have also washed away thousands of acres of crops and dozens of government buildings, local businesses and schools, Bilour said.

Earlier Friday the head of Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority said flooding had killed at least 150 people and injured 90 others since Wednesday. Retired Gen. Nadeem Ahmed said 90 people were still missing.

The Pakistani Air Force is helping with rescue efforts, spokesman Tariq Yazdanie said in an interview on Pakistani TV.

The recent torrential rains have broken all previous records of rainfall in the country, he said.

The U.N. Refugee Agency dispatched the first shipment of aid for flood victims in the region Thursday, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

APP said the supplies include 585 tents, 2,700 plastic sheets, 1,760 kitchen sets and 4,000 plastic mats.

At the same time, a top official in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province pressed Pakistan's president for help, according to APP.

The news agency said Assembly Speaker Karamatullah Khan told legislators he had asked President Asif Ali Zardari for a supply of emergency boats.



Photographs from Getty Images showed flood victims struggling to cross a swolen river in the town of Nowshera. The pictures showed children being ferried across the water in overcrowded boats, and more able-bodied people helping the elderly to higher ground.

Supplies from the U.N. agency will go first to the two hard-hit villages of Talli and Sultan Kot in Sibi district, APP said.