Officials in southern Pakistan are battling to save the town of Thatta, where the raging Indus river has breached more of its levees. Tens of thousands of people have fled the town in the past few days and some outlying districts were reported to already be under water. A local official in Thatta said it could take up to three days to repair the breaches. Reports say the town in Sindh province is now all but abandoned. The massive floods in Pakistan have lasted for more than a month, leaving 8 million people in need of emergency relief. As the waters start to recede in the north of the country, the full extent of the damage has begun to emerge. The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs has warned that the Indus river in the south has swollen to 40 times its usual capacity. More than seven million people have now been displaced in southern Sindh province – one million in the past few days alone. Out of the 23 districts in the province, 19 have so far been badly affected by the floods. Across the country, some 17 million people have been affected.