Pakistan authorities yesterday called in more troops to help in rescue efforts, fearing fresh rains may worsen the situation in southern Pakistan, where floods have left 81 people dead and more than 100,000 homeless.

　　"The situation is worsening," said Ali Nawaz Mallah, a relief official in the government of Pakistan's southern Sindh province. "The administration has called in more troops."

　　Three rescue workers and a newspaper reporter were missing in the floods.

　　Heavy monsoon rains have been lashing parts of Sindh province since Thursday.

　　An emergency has been declared in the worst-hit districts of Badin, Thatta and Tharparkar, where most of the casualties occurred.

　　Eleven people were reported missing on Sunday, said Salahuddin Haider, a Sindh government spokesman. They are now assumed to have died.

　　An official of the Edhi Foundation, Pakistan's largest emergency relief group, two other rescue workers and a local reporter traveling with them went missing on Sunday, said Abdul Sattar Edhi, head of the organization.

　　"There has been no communication with them for the past 22 hours," Edhi said.

　　The missing relief worker, Faisal Edhi, was traveling in a boat to visit food relief centers set up by the foundation in Badin.

　　An emergency was declared in the three districts, where monsoon rains triggered floods that damaged thousands of homes and crops including rice and cotton fields.

　　There was no rain yesterday in the flood-hit areas but more downpours were forecast for the next couple of days.

　　Overall, some 150 people have died in Pakistan since the start of the monsoon rains in early July.

　　India has reported more than 280 flood-related deaths, Bangladesh more than 170 and Nepal around 80.