Pakistan has issued a flood alert for some southern districts, warning of torrential rains, as rescue teams continued searching for missing people in the northwest, where severe floods have killed hun

Officials say rescuers have recovered dozens more bodies from the rubble of collapsed homes in a northwestern district of Pakistan, bringing the death toll to at least 274, as authorities defended their response to the flooding and said they did not need any foreign help at this point.

Ongoing heavy rains and flooding have claimed 43 more lives in Pakistan in just 24 hours, raising the death toll since Aug. 14 to 437, the national and provincial disaster management authorities said Wednesday.