Pakistani search teams found the wreckage of a helicopter that went down the previous day in the country’s flood-stricken southwest, the military said Tuesday. An army general and five others on board were killed, it said.
The previous evening, the aircraft had lost contact with the air-traffic control tower in Baluchistan province, while flying on a relief mission in a flood-hit area in the southwest.
A military statement identified the deceased officer as regional commander Lt Gen Sarfraz Ali. It said that, according to an initial probe, the crash happened due to bad weather.
The helicopter was part of aid efforts in the flood-affected in Baluchistan, where rains and flash floods since June have killed nearly 150 people.. The military provided no further details.
Pakistan’s President Arif Ali, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and other senior politicians offered their condolences to the victims’ families
Pakistan is currently using helicopters and boats to evacuate flood victims from various parts of the country, including Baluchistan and Rajanpur, a district in the eastern Punjab province.
Rains and flash floods have killed nearly 500 people across the country since June, when rains started lashing different parts of the country, triggering floods. Since then, rescue workers backed by the military have evacuated thousands of marooned people, including women and children, from various parts of Pakistan.
More rains are expected this week in Pakistan, where the monsoon season runs from July through September.
