Landslide kills eight children as monsoon batters Pakistan

Children buried under sand bank while playing cricket in remote northern district

Rescue workers monitor flooding in Rawalpindi on Friday. AFP

Eight children in northern Pakistan were killed by a landslide while playing cricket after monsoon rains, officials said on Friday.

The children, aged from 12 to 15, set up a cricket pitch near a sand bank, which collapsed after heavy rains, burying the group.

The incident comes a year after historic floods displaced millions of people across the country.

Rescue teams in the remote Shangla district recovered one injured child and about seven others who were unharmed.

At least 50 people have been killed in floods and landslides in the past two weeks, a year after devastating floods killed more than 1,700 people, displaced millions more and left much of the country in physical and financial ruin.

Almost 90 others have been injured, a disaster management official told AFP.

The majority of the deaths were in Punjab province and were mainly caused by electrocution and building collapses, official data showed.

More than 84,000 people were evacuated from their homes last month as Cyclone Biparjoy hit Pakistan and parts of India, while at least 27 others were killed in storms in the north west.

Experts say climate change is worsening monsoon rains and making storms more unpredictable.

Officials in Lahore, the country's second-largest city, said it had received record-breaking rainfall on Wednesday, turning roads into rivers and leaving almost 35 per cent of residents without electricity and water this week.

Last year's floods caused damage estimated at about $30 billion and left two million people homeless.

The disaster dealt a final blow to Pakistan's already faltering economy, and leaders have spent much of the past year pleading for international financial help to rebuild.

A staff-level agreement was reached with the International Monetary Fund last week, with $3 billion in funding expected to be considered by its executive board next month.

Extreme weather is also a cause for public health concern, with Pakistan recording a "very sharp" increase in malaria cases after the floods last year.