A third of Pakistan is under water as devastating floods kill more than 1,500, officials say

• Pakistan is battling crippling floods across the country.
• The country's climate-change minister said one third of the country was under water.

A third of Pakistan is under water as the country battles devastating floods that have killed hundreds of people, the country's climate-change minister said.

"One-third of Pakistan is under water," Sherry Rehman tweeted on Monday.

"Frankly, no one has seen this kind of downpour & flooding before, and no one country can cope alone with the multiple, cascading effects of extreme weather, climate events."

She told Sky News on Monday that 33 million people had been affected, including many who are stuck in places that rescuers cannot reach.

She said there had been eight weeks of "unrelenting" rain, and that helicopters were "having trouble" finding dry places to land in some parts of the country.

Pakistan's foreign minister said on Monday that more than 1,500 people had been killed since June, when this year's monsoon season started.

That figure means it appears around 500 people have died since Sunday, when Pakistan's National Disaster Management Agency gave the death toll of 1,033.

Rehman described the floods earlier this week as a "climate-induced humanitarian disaster" of "epic proportions."

Experts say Pakistan is one of the country's most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, despite not being a big carbon emitter.

Rehman told the UK's Channel 4 News: "We're at the ground zero of a climate dystopia."