Buner, Pakistan — Pakistan issued a flood alert Wednesday for some southern districts, warning of torrential rains, as rescue teams continued searching for missing people in the country's northwest, where severe floods killed hundreds over the past week.

Anguished Pakistanis are searching remote areas for bodies swept away by weekend flash floods as the death toll has reached 277.

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.

His Majesty King Charles III of the United Kingdom has issued a heartfelt message, expressing sorrow over the recent devastating monsoon flooding in Pakistan.

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.

Pakistan declared a public holiday in Karachi as the financial capital braced for more rain on Wednesday, after the arrival of the annual monsoon season left at least seven people dead and caused widespread flooding,

Pakistan has restored 70 percent of electricity service and reopened damaged roads in the north and northwest after flash floods killed more than 300 people, officials say. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Tuesday that engineers were working to fully restore the electricity system that was knocked out by flooding last week.