Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis have been ordered to evacuate¹ their homes as flood waters threaten several cities in the south of the country.

巴基斯坦南部几个城市受到洪水威胁，几十万巴基斯坦人被迫离开自己的家园。

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Fresh breaches in embankments have inundated large areas

The flood surge（大浪，巨涌） , after weeks of monsoon⁵ rains, has breached⁶（违反，破坏） embankments（路堤） on the Indus River, inundating⁷（淹没，泛滥） villages and swamping（沼泽化，覆没） vast areas of farmland.

Parts of Pakistan have been described as resembling an inland sea.

After threats from Pakistan's Taliban, the UN is reviewing security for its aid workers helping⁸ flood victims.

A US official said militants⁹ planned to attack foreigners delivering aid to the millions of people affected¹⁰ by the devastating¹¹ floods.

One Taliban spokesman told Associated Press that the presence of foreign aid workers was "unacceptable".

However, there have been no attacks since the humanitarian¹² crisis unfolded.

'Pressure increasing'

The UN says more than 17 million people have been affected by the floods, and about 1.2 million homes have been destroyed, leaving five million people homeless.

The floods started in the mountainous north and have steadily¹³ surged south, damaging an estimated 3.2 million hectares（公顷） (7.9 million acres) of farmland - about 14% of Pakistan's land under cultivation¹⁴ according to the UN's food agency.

The remaining residents of Shahdadkot, originally a town of 300,000 people, have been warned to leave as floodwaters approach. Many people have already left the town, in northern Sindh province.

"Shahdadkot is certainly in danger," said Sindh official Riaz Ahmed Soomro. "People had built an artificial embankment but the pressure is increasing."

The BBC's Chris Morris reports from Shahdadkot that as a breach² nearby widened, a series of fields rapidly filled up, taking on the appearance of an inland sea.

Another embankment was breached in the Kot Almo area of Sindh province, forcing thousands of people in the southern Thatta district to flee from their homes.

Further downstream, about 400,000 people have been told to evacuate the towns of Sujawal, Mir Pur Batoro and Daro.

"Evacuation in those areas is ongoing¹⁵ but we have issued another warning for the remaining people to leave as well," Saleh Farooqi, director general of the National Disaster Management Agency's Sindh office, told the Reuters news agency.