At least 32 people have been killed in Pakistan in recent flash flooding caused by heavy rains, including a family of tourists who died after being swept away by flood waters while apparently awaiting rescue.
Videos of the family stranded on a small piece of land as the raging Swat river in northern Pakistan swept them away were shared widely on social media, prompting anger towards the provincial government as eyewitnesses said the family waited helplessly for more than an hour.
Flash floods and heavy rains have killed 32 people, including 16 children, in Pakistan in the past 36 hours; 13 were from Punjab province and 19 from the north-west Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the tourist family died.
Sheikh Waqas Akram, the central information secretary of the former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which is in power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said they had suspended four senior officials from the Swat administration and emergency rescue department.
Akram said the chief minister, Ali Amin Gandapur, ordered an inquiry and asked that the report be submitted in a week, in documents seen by the Guardian.
“The province conveyed a meeting on flash floods on 21 June,” Akram told the Guardian. “Soon after the meeting we issued warnings and announced it through speakers in mosques as well. It was done to spread awareness and ask tourists to be away from the riverbank and never step on the riverbed. At least 71 people were booked in cases in violation of the warnings.”
He added: “It was a tragic and unfortunate incident and the tourists were in the riverbed.”
When the flash flood occurred, the family from Punjab province were having a picnic breakfast by the Swat river in the Swat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The family had gone into the river to rescue the children, who had been taking photos, government officials said.
According to Akram, at least 17 people were swept away in the flash floods in Swat river – nine bodies of the family have been recovered and one is missing. Four other people were rescued while three are still missing. He said the rescue efforts are continuing.
The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) later issued an alert saying there were high flood levels and warning people to take precautions.
Pakistan, with a population of more than 240 million, is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to the effects of the climate crisis. Climate induced flash floods in 2022, killed at least 1,700 people and affected more than 33 million people. The incident prompted discussion in Pakistan on the climate crisis, provincial governments’ role in preventing such incidents, tourists avoiding warnings and allegations of incompetence and corruption in local government.
The former climate change minister Sherry Rehman said the tourists in Pakistan no longer respond to colonial-era instructions such as section 144 – which allows district administrations to place bans on activities – and they seem not to heed extreme weather warnings.
Rehman criticised poor government signalling on the climate crisis and a lack of coordinated efforts, saying: “Public resources also fell egregiously short in this tragedy. The PDMA should have mobilised a helicopter to get to the marooned family in time. It’s outrageous negligence on their part not to have.”
Many social media users criticised the government for failing to rescue the stranded family as eyewitness accounts said the family was stranded for more than one hour without any help.
The PDMAs were created after the deadly 2005 earthquake in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and are responsible for responding in a timely way to natural calamities, floods and disasters. The disaster authorities in different Pakistani provinces have been accused of corruption.