Nearly 260 people have been killed and more than one million affected due to rains and devastating floods in Pakistan with authorities racing against both time and tide to limit destruction, officials said today.

The rains lashed vast areas of the country last week and have now stopped but the floods triggered by the heavy showers are still out of control. Reema Zubari of the National Disaster Management Authority said 1,091,807 people have been affected by the floods in Punjab alone.

Another million people would be affected in Sindh province as the flood water has drained down to empty into the Arabian Sea, Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif said. NDMA has warned that high to very high level flood would hit Sindh in the south of the country on September 13.

Currently the floods have entered the southern part of Punjab after wreaking havoc in north-eastern and central parts of the province.