PESHAWAR: Flash floods and building collapses brought on by heavy rains killed 34 people in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, officials said.

Heavy monsoon rain has fallen since Monday, inundating several villages in parts of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, officials said.

In Shangla district, 19 people died in rain-related incidents, police chief Jahanzeb Khan told AFP, while an administrative chief in Peshawar said 35 mud houses had collapsed there, reportedly killing eight.

Officials said that four people were also killed in Karak district.

The flood waters badly affected farmland in Swat valley and killed three people, Qazi Mohammad Jamil, senior police official told AFP.

Torrential rains also swept away several bridges and link roads in Swat, Jamil said.

Floods unleashed by torrential rains in south and southwestern Pakistan in 2007 claimed more than 200 lives and affected some 1.6 million people.

BDST: 0927 HRS, July 29, 2010