Desperate Pakistanis are using a college for shelter after being displaced by floods that have killed nearly 1,300 people and affected 33 million.

Record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in Pakistan’s northern mountains have brought floods that have covered an area larger than the UK.

The country has already received nearly three times the 30-year average rainfall in the quarter through August, totalling 390.7 millimetres (15.38 inches). 

Some of the displaced people in camps in Khairpur and Mehar, in the Sindh province, have now moved into the Ustad Bukhari Government college in Dadu after floodwaters rose in those areas. 

College principal Irfan Kalhoro said: ‘This is not a registered camp set up by the authorities. But these people broke the locks and settled inside the (class) rooms.

‘Over 2,000 people have settled here, including around 500-700 children, and around 450 women.’

Mohammad Ibrahim, one of those seeking shelter at the college, also in Sindh, said they had not entered by force, and pleaded with the college to be understanding about their current plight.

The hard-hit Sindh province, with a population of 50 million, received 464% more rain than the 30-year average.

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Authorities breached the country’s largest freshwater lake on Sunday, displacing up to 100,000 people from their homes but saving more densely populated areas from gathering flood water, Sindh Irrigation Minister Jam Khan Shoro said.

Manchar Lake, which is used for water storage, had already reached dangerous levels and the increased pressure posed a threat to surrounding areas in southern Sindh province, the minister added.

He said about 100,000 people would be affected by the breach but it would help save more populated clusters and also reduce water levels in other, harder-hit areas.

Some displaced by the floods have complained that shelters are crowded, while others are reluctant to leave their possessions.

Aside from historic rainfall, southern Pakistan has had to contend with increased flooding as a surge of water flowed down the Indus river.

Being downstream on the Indus river, the southern parts of the country have witnessed swelling river waters flowing from the north.

Pakistan’s limited dams and reservoirs are already overflowing and cannot be used to stop downstream flows.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday appealed to UNICEF and other global agencies to help control child deaths, with 453 reported.

On Sunday, flights carrying aid from UNICEF, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates landed in Pakistan.

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