More than 280 dead after flash floods hit India and Pakistan

Flash flooding has killed more than 280 people in India and Pakistan over the last 24 hours, according to local officials.

Dozens more are missing after torrential rains struck two mountainous districts in the neighbouring countries. Some 1,600 people have been brought to safety.

In India-controlled Kashmir, at least 60 people were killed in the remote Himalayan village of Chasoti in the Jammu and Kashmir region on Thursday. Chasoti, around 85 miles (136km) northeast of Jammu, is the last village accessible to vehicles on the route of an annual Hindu pilgrimage to a mountainous shrine, the Machail Mata temple.

More than 80 people have been reported missing, and officials believe many of those were washed away in the floods. Forecasters say more heavy rains and floods could hit the area.

Officials halted rescue operations overnight but rescued at least 300 people on Thursday. Meanwhile, in Pakistan, at least 243 people have died in flash floods, including 157 people in Buner district in the northwestern district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Authorities there have declared a state of emergency. Rescuers evacuated 1,300 tourists from the mountainous Mansehra district who were trapped by flash flooding and landslides in the Siran Valley on Thursday, according to Bilal Faizi, a provincial emergency service spokesman.

A helicopter carrying relief supplies to the flood-hit northwestern region of Bajaur crashed on Friday due to bad weather, killing all five people on board, including two pilots, a government statement said. Read more from Sky News:Watch: Flash flood hits Indian villageIndia 'will not tolerate' nuclear blackmailWhy the world map should be changed Pakistan's disaster management agency has issued fresh alerts for glacial lake outburst flooding in the north, warning people to avoid affected areas.

The Gilgit-Baltistan region has been hit by multiple floods since July, triggering landslides along the Karakoram Highway, a key trade and travel route linking Pakistan and China. A study released this week by World Weather Attribution, a network of international scientists, found rainfall in Pakistan between 24 June to 23 July was 10% to 15% heavier because of global warming..