Islamabad: Days of torrential rain have killed 34 people in Pakistan, mostly on the northwestern border with Afghanistan, officials said on Wednesday.

The worst-hit region was Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the northwest where 25 people were killed and 57 injured as a result of heavy rain from Sunday to Tuesday, the provincial disaster management authority said.

Three soldiers were also reported missing after they were hit by an avalanche in the northwestern district of Lower Dir.

Eight people were killed in the central province of Punjab, said Shahzad Abbasi, spokesman for the Punjab disaster management authority.

One person died and another was injured when they were hit by lightning in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, said state official Shahid Hassan Malek.

The recent bad weather has disrupted domestic and international flights from the country and, according to the Met Office‚ the rainy spell is likely to persist in upper Khyber Paktunkhwa province, upper Punjab including Islamabad‚ Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan over the next few days.

The biggest rainfall of 106 millimetres was recorded at Chakwal in Punjab, followed by 91 at Rawalkot in Kashmir and Saidu Sharif in Swat, and 75 in Islamabad. Mountainous areas continue to receive heavy snowfall.

Nine people reportedly died in rain-induced incidents in Swabi‚ Haripur and Shangla in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with fatalities also reported from various other parts of the country as roofs of mud houses collapsed and rainwater flooded low-lying areas.

The Karakuram highway linking Pakistan to China in the north was blocked at some places due to heavy snowfall.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) issued a statement saying that most parts of the country would witness heavy rain this week.

The PMD further said that heavy snowfall was reported over the hills in the northern part of the country.

Areas closer to hills such as Malakand, Hazara, Murree, Galiyat, Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir experienced heavy snowfall after a brief lull in the cold spell there.

The PMD said hail fell at isolated places on the plains of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa as well as the Punjab region, including Islamabad. Pakistan has suffered devastating monsoon floods for the last three years, including the worst in its history in 2010 when catastrophic inundations killed almost 1,800 people and affected 21 million.