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Downpour kills another five in southwest Pakistan
QUETTA, Pakistan (AFP) Mar 04, 2005
Five members of the same family died Friday when their mud-brick home collapsed, pushing the death toll from a fresh spate of torrential rains in southwestern Pakistan to 19, police said.

Two women and three children perished in Kili Nausar, on the outskirts of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, "when the roof caved in due to incessant rain," police officer Aminullah Khilji told AFP.

The latest rains come at the end of a bitter winter in which at least 550 Pakistanis have died from torrential rain, snow and avalanches.

Pakistan's military Friday used helicopters for relief work near the Arabian Sea port of Gwadar as roads had been washed away by flooding, government spokesman Raziq Bugti told AFP.

Gwadar's airport remained closed for a third day due to flooding, he said.

Bugti said the recent spell of rain had damaged nearly 3,000 homes and dislocated around 25,000 people in Baluchistan. Some 1,400 animals were dead or missing.

The UN refugee agency has also sent tents to provide temporary shelters to Afghan refugees whose homes were damaged by rain in the area, a statement said.

Dam bursts and floods in Baluchistan last month left an estimated 85 people dead.

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