At least eight volunteers were killed and several others feared trapped when a landslide hit a flood-damaged water channel in Gilgit’s Danyor Nullah during repair work, police said on Monday.
The volunteers were restoring the channel when a mass of earth collapsed, burying them under debris, said police.
Hospital sources confirmed all the dead were members of a local volunteer team, while three others were injured.
As the search goes on for more survivors, the authorities have declared an emergency at local hospitals.
A provincial government spokesperson said accelerated glacial melt, driven by climate change, had increased water flow in several streams.
The Shishper glacier recently flooded, damaging farmland and closing part of the Karakoram Highway (KKH) towards Hunza. Traffic was being diverted via Nagar Road.
Officials have warned of further rains and landslides in the region.
A significant stretch of the KKH in Upper Hunza’s Morkhun area was destroyed by river erosion, severing the overland link between Pakistan and China, the Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) government said.
“River erosion remains a key contributor to highway blockages in the region,” a cryosphere expert told The Express Tribune. “Although disruptions on the KKH are not unusual, the current intensity of river swelling and the scale of damage are significantly higher.”
