Pakistani troops used helicopters and boats to evacuate thousands of marooned people from the country’s plains where raging monsoon floods inundated more villages yesterday.

In neighbouring India, the military dropped food for hundreds of thousands of people who had been marooned in flood-hit areas of Kashmir.

The death toll had reached 461 across the two countries.

Flash floods have washed away crops, damaged tens of thousands of homes and affected more than a million people since September 3, when heavy monsoon rains lashed Pakistan’s Punjab province and India’s Kashmir region.

Spokesman Ahmad Kamal said 261 people had been killed and 482 injured in Pakistan.

“The situation is still alarming. Flood waters are entering the country’s plains in the Jhang district, inundating more villages and affecting thousands,” he said.

Troops in helicopters and boats had evacuated 4,000 more people from Jhang.

Floods are likely to reach Sindh province later this week.

Authorities were supplying tents and food to survivors but many complained the government was not doing enough.

Indian National Disaster Response Force head Sandeep Rai Rathore said that the flooding had killed 200 people in India, where anger and resentment was also mounting over a slow relief effort.

“We want water and food. We will die here. Please drop some food packets,” a stranded Srinagar resident told the Hindustan Times.