BUNER  -  Residents of Buner district where devastating floods have killed more than 200 people said on Monday they were too scared to go back to their deluged homes as authorities warned of more rains to come. “Everybody is scared. Children are scared. They cannot sleep,” said Sahil Khan, a 24-year-old university student.

He was speaking to a wire service team from a rooftop in the district of Buner, where he and 15 other villagers had climbed to escape any more flooding amid a fresh spell of rain on Monday. “It was like a doomsday scenario,” he said of the flash floods caused by heavy rains and cloudbursts that, according to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority, have killed at least 341 people in the northwest since Friday - more than 200 of them in Buner.

The fatalities include 28 women and 21 children, it said. The intense rain has claimed lives and spread destruction in several northern districts, with most people killed in flash floods, according to the National Disaster Management Authority. In hilly areas, the floods washed away houses, buildings, vehicles and belongings. Buner district was the worst hit in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Khan and other residents in Buner’s Bayshonai Kalay village fled to higher ground when a water channel that had earlier overflowed and caused major devastation started swelling with more rain on Monday, according to wire service witnesses.

He and several other residents said most of the villagers were staying with relatives or in makeshift camps set up by local authorities on higher ground.

Rescuers were finding it difficult to get heavy machinery into narrow streets. In Buner’s main markets and streets, shops and houses were buried in up to five feet of mud, which locals were clearing with shovels. Elsewhere, cars and other belongings were strewn in the rubble of ruined buildings.

“People are out of their homes. They are fearful,” said Dayar Khan, 26, a shopkeeper in Buner. “They have climbed up in the mountains.” Rescue and relief efforts resumed in the flood-hit areas several hours after heavy rain forced rescuers to halt work on Monday, a regional government officer, Abid Wazir, told wire service. “Our priority is now to clear the roads, set up bridges and bring relief to the affected people,” he said.

Heavy rains and flash floods also hit more areas in the northwestern province on Monday, including the district Swabi, where 11 people were killed, according to the provincial disaster management authority.

Local TV footage showed flood water raging through Swabi’s streets, washing away cars and motorcycles, as residents ran in panic for safer ground.

Relief supplies, including food, medicine, blankets, tents, an electric generator and pumps have been sent to the affected areas, the authority said.

Torrential rains and flooding this monsoon season have killed 657 people across Pakistan since late June, it said.