Flood impact 'worse than tsunami'

Former Pakistan cricket captain Imran Khan warned that the flooding in his country could have a greater impact that the Indian Ocean tsunami.

More than 200,000 people died when the huge wave devastated large swathes of the coastline of Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and other countries in 2004.

The flooding which has laid waste to a vast area of Pakistan has so far killed more than 2,000 people. But Imran said the knock-on affects could devastate the country for years to come.

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He told ITV’s Daybreak programme: “This is a sort of unfolding tragedy where 20 million people are affected so it is in fact much bigger than the tsunami or the earthquake because over a period of time you can have famines, people have lost everything, their crops, their animals so you have 20 million people affected, no food, no house, living in open spaces with contaminated water.

“Over a period of time this could be a bigger disaster than either the tsunami or the earthquake we had five years back.”

The former cricketer turned politician launched The Imran Khan Flood Relief organisation.