At least 43 people are dead and more than 400 still missing in a remote area of southwestern Pakistan after heavy rains caused a large dam to burst, sweeping villagers into the Arabian Sea, officials said Friday. Most of the bodies were recovered by Coast Guard patrols sweeping the coast with fishing nets, provincial Cabinet minister Sher Jan Baluch told The Associated Press. The 150-meter-long (485-foot-long) Shakidor Dam burst late Thursday near Pasni, a remote village in Baluchistan province. Between 400 and 500 people are still unaccounted for, Baluch said. "The army has started rescue operations to try to save as many lives as possible," Baluch said. He said he feared some of the missing may also have been swept into the sea, though others might be taking shelter in homes, nearby mountains or other surrounding areas. More than 1,200 villagers have already been pulled alive from the floodwaters by troops, helicopters and boats sent to the area, said Mudasser Butt, an army spokesman in Quetta. Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, the top spokesman for President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, refused to speculate on how many people may have died. Witnesses described seeing trucks and tankers swept out to sea. "I can only say that troops have started the rescue work ... and they are trying to save the lives of people," Sultan said. The Shakidor dam was built in 2003 to help with irrigation in the area, but was unable to cope with more than a week of heavy rains. Telephone lines, roads and eight bridges in the area were also damaged, Butt said. He said the troops diverted the flow of floodwaters to save other towns located near Pasni, about 650 kilometers (400 miles) south of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province. --more 1400 Local Time 1100 GMT
