Landslide kills 7 Pakistani villagers, 8 missing

GILGIT, Pakistan (Reuters) - A landslide triggered by torrential rain killed seven people and soldiers were searching for eight others buried under the rubble of their homes in a mountain village in northern Pakistan, police said on Wednesday.

The accident happened late Tuesday in Hilalabad village, about 110 km (70 miles) east of Gilgit, the capital of the country's Northern Areas

"Soldiers have been sent to the village, " police officer in area, Mohammad Qayyum, told Reuters. "Eight villagers are still missing and many are without shelters."

On Monday, a flash flood killed 20 people and washed away homes in villages close to Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province. Some 12,000 houses were destroyed, and there are fears that more bodies will be found.

Pakistan's Meteorological department said the heavy rains should cease in a few days, and there were no high floods reported from rivers flowing down from the western Himalayas.

"The catchment areas like Kashmir and Northern Area hasn't received enough rains to cause floods in rivers," chief meteorologist Qamar-uz-Zaman said.

(Reporting by Manzar Shigri, Writing by Kamran Haider; editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Sanjeev Miglani)