The building collapsed because of recent heavy rains. In Punjab, more than 230 people have died so far. Hundreds of thousands are homeless. More than 400,000 have been displaced in neighbouring India. Islamabad issues warning for more than 700,000 people.

Lahore (AsiaNews/Agencies) - According to the latest report, at least 24 people were killed and seven more injured in yesterday's collapse of a mosque in Lahore's Daroghawala District, one of the poorest neighbourhood in Pakistan's cultural capital.

Heavy rains, which caused landslides, floods and hundreds of deaths in Pakistan and India, caused the sudden collapse of the mosque's roof, local sources said.

Indeed, the monsoon rains that caused deadly floods in Pakistan's Kashmir region and Punjab province, may have contributed to the mosque's collapse (pictured), Punjab food minister Bilal Yasin said.

In Pakistan, especially in Punjab, the death toll from monsoon rains has reached 231. Hundreds of villages have been wiped out with huge tracts of farmland under water.

"It was just another normal day when I stood with others to say my prayers, but suddenly everything turned into pain, dust and it was suffocating," said Zahid Bashir, a survivor. "I am lucky to have survived this. Life and death is in the hands of Allah".

In both Pakistan and neighbouring India, hundreds of thousands of people are still stranded and many more have been warned to leave their homes amid some of the worst flooding in the region in decades. The combined death toll in the two countries has passed 450.

Officials say 400,000 people are stranded in Indian-administered Kashmir, where 200 people have died.

In Pakistan, some 700,000 people have been told to leave their homes, which could be flooded or swept away.

Hundreds of people are trying to leave Srinagar, the main city in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Scores of tourists are trying to take flights out of the city's airport, while many migrant workers, who have no money to pay for tickets, are looking for free flights.

The situation in Pakistan is expected to get worse. Some of the earth dykes, which were holding the water back, are now collapsing, releasing a new surge into farming villages.

"This is a sad moment for all of us," Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said, addressing flood victims. "These floods came suddenly and no one knew that such a large flood was coming."

• pakistan
• floods
• mosque
• collapse