CHOSITI, India (AP) — Flash floods triggered by torrential rains have killed over 200 people and left scores others missing in India and Pakistan over the past 24 hours, officials said Friday, as rescuers brought to safety some 1,600 people from two mountainous districts in the neighboring countries.

Pakistan has received higher-than-normal monsoon rainfall this year, triggering floods and mudslides that have killed more than 540 people since June 26.

Sudden, intense downpours over small areas known as cloudbursts are increasingly common in India’s Himalayan regions and Pakistan’s northern areas, which are prone to flash floods and landslides.

Pakistan declared a public holiday in Karachi on Wednesday as the financial capital braced for more rain, after the arrival of the annual monsoon season left at least 7 people dead and caused widespread flooding,

Death toll rises to 358 after flash floods engulf homes in northwest Pakistan: ‘It came without warning’ - More cloudbursts are expected to intensify problems for people already rendered homeless

Flash floods triggered by cloudbursts in the mountainous northwest have brought destruction since Friday in the worst spell of this year's monsoon.