More than 250 people dead in flooding across Asia

Threatened houses by the overflowing Tawi river are pictured following heavy rains and flooding in Jammu on September 6, 2014. (Photo: STRDEL/AFP/Getty Images)



(CNN) -- Severe flooding from an intense monsoon season has left more than 250 people dead and hundreds more homeless across parts of South Asia and China. Dozens more have been injured or are missing.

In Pakistan, flash flooding has killed 110 people and injured nearly 150 others in recent days, authorities said Saturday.

India also is coping with severe flooding, which has claimed the lives of at least 97 people in Indian-administered Kashmir, Vinod Koul, state relief and rehabilitation commissioner, told CNN on Saturday.

And in southwestern China, more than 40 people have died and 18 others are missing after heavy rains and flooding over the past week, authorities said.

The hardest-hit areas in Pakistan include Punjab, the country's most populous province, and Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

Lahore and Rawalpindi, major cities in Punjab, are experiencing serious flooding.

The flooding has destroyed 650 homes in Pakistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's office said.

The Pakistani government reported Friday that up to a foot of rain had fallen in eastern parts of the country within the past day.

Some flood victims died from collapsing roofs or electrocution by downed power lines, officials said.

Sharif will attend a meeting Saturday to review the "situation in the country and damage caused to life and property by incessant rains and resulting floods," a statement said.

In India, more than 2,000 villages have been affected in the Kashmir and Jammu region, Koul said. The severe flooding has also damaged or completely washed away dozens of bridges and hundreds of kilometers of road, he added. Power and water systems have been crippled by the monsoons as well.

Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday toured the devastated area near the state capital of Srinagar, assuring residents that relief is on the way.

The state government has undertaken a massive rescue and relief operation, but residents have complained of inadequate or delayed responses from authorities in the hardest-hit areas. The Indian army is also taking part in the rescue and relief operation.

Some 5,000 people have been rescued from the flood zone as of Saturday, according to the Ministry of Defence.

The agency also said the army had rescued seven of nine soldiers trapped by floodwaters after their boat capsized south of Srinagar. Efforts to rescue two more personnel were under way Saturday.

CNN-IBN reported the area is experiencing the worst flooding in six decades.

In China, heavy rain has so far claimed the lives of 44 people after starting on Sunday, the country's Civil Affairs Ministry reported Saturday.

Damage estimates have exceeded 3.3 billion yuan (more than $530 million).

In Thailand, the state-run MCOT news agency reported that authorities urged residents along waterways in the country's central region to move to higher ground. The risk of flooding increased there after a decision to release more water from a dam to reduce water levels in the flood-hit north, MCOT reported.

Heavy rains also caused extensive flooding in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, South Korea and Japan last month.