PLANES carrying fresh supplies are surging across a humanitarian air bridge to flood-ravaged Pakistan as the death toll surged past 1,200, officials said today, with families and children at special risk of disease and homelessness.

The ninth flight from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the first from Uzbekistan were the latest to land in Islamabad overnight, as a military-backed rescue operation elsewhere in the country reached more of the three million people affected by the disaster.

Two more planes from UAE and Qatar with aid were due to arrive in Pakistan later today, and a Turkish train carrying relief goods for flood victims was on its way to the impoverished nation, according to the Foreign Ministry.