Pakistan has reported 178 deaths from Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the northwest, Sindh in the south and Balochistan in the southwest, officials said.

Relentless rain began on Wednesday, causing flooding in several cities and across vast rural stretches in the province of Punjab.

Relentless floods have claimed the lives of more than 170 people in eastern Pakistan, about half of them children, in the latest catastrophe that underscores the country’s vulnerability to the escalating climate crisis.