KARACHI, Pakistan

Massive monsoon rains compounded by flash floods killed another nine people amid risks of glacial lake outburst floods (Glofs) in northern Pakistan on Tuesday, officials and local media reported.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department issued an alert for a "heightened" risk of Glofs in the rain-battered northern Gilgit-Baltistan region and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and warned that the weather conditions increased the risk of Glofs, flash floods and landslides in vulnerable glaciated regions of the two regions.

At least five people were killed in the tourist Swat Valley of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, while two other bodies were recovered in the Diamir district of the northern Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) region.

Another two people were killed in the Bajaur tribal district near the Afghanistan border.

Faizullah Faraq, a spokesman for the GB government, told Anadolu that the bodies of two tourists who went missing Monday after a cloudburst in the Diamir district have been recovered, while a search operation is continuing to locate 15 to 20 missing in the area.

He added that 250 trapped tourists have been rescued and shifted to safer places.

Aside from Diamir, he said massive rains and flash floods have also struck Skardu, Hunza, Ghanchay and other districts, washing away several roads and bridges and disconnecting villages.

Hundreds of vehicles were stranded on the road connecting the Sapara and Deosai valleys of Skardu after it was closed at 10 different points due to the floods, he maintained.

A retired army officer and his daughter also went missing after their vehicle was washed away by rain-triggered flash floods in the garrison city of Rawalpindi on Tuesday.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) issued a fresh landslide warning for Tuesday or parts of GB, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and Pakistan-administered Kashmir due to torrential rains.

The authority warned tourists to avoid travel to these areas.

The fresh casualties have soared the nationwide death toll to 234 people, including 112 children, since June 26, according to an NDMA report.

Most of the deaths have been reported across Punjab.

President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in separate statements, expressed grief over the loss of lives in rain-related accidents and directed the relevant agencies to go all out to rescue the stranded people.