Torrential rains have caused damage across Pakistan

More than 1,000 people have been airlifted to safety but more remain stranded on roofs, and on high ground near Pasni in Balochistan province.

"Coast guards have so far pulled out 80 bodies..., while 400 are missing," minister Sher Jan Baluch said.

Across the country, 50 more people have died in mudslides and house collapses caused by two weeks of rain and snow.

Questions asked

Rescue teams are also bringing emergency aid, dry food, medicine and tents to survivors near Pasni.

Officials in Balochistan said five villages were swept away when rains breached the Shadikor dam near Pasni, 650km (400 miles) from the provincial capital, Quetta.

About 3,000 personnel from the army, navy, coastguard and civil emergency organisations have been called in for the rescue operation, amid fears the casualty figures could rise.

Helicopters delivering food, medicine and tents have been dropping supplies from the air in places where they cannot land.

Continuing rain has compounded the misery and made the operation more difficult.

Power and telephone lines as well as roads were also damaged.

Officials say hundreds of people are still unaccounted for, many of them feared dead.

Some of the dead were travelling along the main southern coastal highway and were swept into the Arabian Sea when the floodwaters struck.

More rain expected

Some cars, trucks and buses were swept into the Arabian Sea by the flood water as they drove along a newly built highway in the Pasni region.

The rains have also washed away several bridges and part of a main road linking Pakistan's southern coast to the main cities.

Already questions are being asked about how a dam completed just two years ago and built to capture water for irrigation in a normally parched province could have failed with such devastating consequences, says the BBC's Paul Anderson in Islamabad.

Meteorological experts said some parts of Pakistan had received the heaviest rain and snow in seven years.