Flooding in hundreds of Pakistani villages has left more than 200,000 people homeless, officials said on Thursday, as monsoon rains continued to lash the country.

Pakistan's monsoon season usually begins in the first week of July, causing flash floods that damage crops and kill hundreds of people each year.

No deaths have been reported so far this year. However, monsoon rains have lashed northwestern Pakistan and the central districts of Dera Ghazi Khan, Layyah and Rajanpur, said Chaudhru Nazir Ahmed, a government official.

• Images: Submerged lives

He said floodwaters on Thursday inundated 70 villages in Layyah, about 200 kilometers northwest of Multan, a main city in the eastern Punjab province, damaging crops and forcing more than 50,000 people to leave their homes.

About 100,000 people have left their homes in Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur, other officials said, adding that troops in motorboats and wearing life jackets were trying to rescue marooned people and provide them with food and other necessities.

Meanwhile, government officials in northwestern Pakistan say floods have left more than 50,000 people homeless.

Last month authorities asked people living near the banks of swollen rivers to move to safer ground, but Ahmed said many refused to do so.