At least 313 people have been killed by rivers bursting their banks in northwest Pakistan.

The rising toll from the monsoon rains underscore the poor infrastructure in impoverished Pakistan, where under-equipped rescue workers were struggling to reach people stranded in far-flung villages. The weather forecast was mixed, with some areas expected to see reduced rainfall and others likely to see an intensification.

Thousands of people have been rendered homeless in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province, while many houses, bridges and roads have been completely washed away by floodwater due to incessant rains.

The northwest appeared to be the hardest hit, the information minister for the province, Mian Iftikhar Hussain said it was the worst flooding in the region since 1929. The highway connecting Peshawar to the federal capital, Islamabad, was shut down after the water washed away bridges and other links.