Water begins flowing from Attabad lake

KARIMABAD, Pakistan: Water began seeping out from a lake formed by a landslide in north Pakistan into a spillway on Saturday, officials said, who added that the next one or two days are critical to avoid catastrophic flooding.

If the spillway doesn’t contain the water and the landslide dam bursts, authorities fear the heavy flooding could wash away many villages, bridges and roads, affecting up to 50,000 people.

“At this point, the water flow is very smooth but it’s eroding the spillway, widening it,” Gilgit-Baltistan’s Commissioner, Asif Bilal Lodhi, told Reuters by telephone.