SANGHAR/KARACHI At least one flood victim was shot dead and some others injured in Jhol area of Shanghar Saturday when hundreds of starving people raided a factory to get relief items stored there. The guard of Al-Rehmat cotton factory, which belongs to area MPA Rana Abdul Sttar, shot fires at the hungry raiders, killing 15-year-old Ghulam Hussain son of Sain Bux Shar, a resident of Ward No 3 of Jhol town. Despite the firing the food hungry rain victims went ahead to the godowns and took away the relief goods. Later, the area residents staged a protest sit-in, which they vowed to continue till the arrest of the murder culprits. Rana Abdul Sttar, who owns the factory, is also a member of district relief committee, which was organised by Sindh government for fair distribution of relief goods. Agencies add: The number of flood victims has soared to 7.1 million according to authorities in Sindh while a large majority of them are still living under open sky in poor conditions. The floods caused by monsoon rains have killed almost 300 persons and caused damage to an area of 7.987 million of land, destroying many crops. The resentment and anger among the troubled people in all 23 districts of the province who remain without any help in the face of acute shortage of food, medicines and other essential provisions are resorting to protests and such acts in desperation against the apathy of the authorities. Earlier on Friday, hundreds of rain-hit people arrived at Sanghar district council and broke a door lock to loot the relief stuff stored in a hall there. Threatened with death and diseases, the people in hard-hit areas of Badin, Sanghar and Mirpur Khas staged protest demonstrations, according to a BBC report. Protesters blocked road by burning tyres in Bhaat area of Kundyari in Snaghar. As much as 2.4 million flood victims have already been hit by outbreak of malaria, diarrhoea and other waterborne epidemics, according to an estimate by aid agencies. Medical experts say that if stagnant rainwater is not drained out sooner, the consequent epidemics can cause large scale deaths. Though relief camps have been set up to accommodate the homeless people and rescue as well relief activities were underway, but still a large majority of them are still lying under open sky and remain without any help. Rain and saline nullah water is still stagnating in open fields. The worst affected areas include Pangrio, Shadilarge and Khoski. Thousands of people have also been affected by the rains in Naukot of Mirpurkhas. The affectees are struggling on their own for survival in the tents. They are facing acute shortage of food. Torrential rains have destroyed roads, cutting off links to a large number of villages in Jati and Mirpur Bathoro in district Thatta. Affectees are facing severe food shortage. More than 500 villages of Kachho, district Dadu too are still under water. Hundreds of people are suffering from different epidemics. Thousands of people in Nara and Faiz Gand tehsils of district Khairpur are also in great trouble after torrential rains there destroyed hundreds of houses. According to NDMA all 23 districts of Sindh, namely Badin, TM Khan, Mirpurkhas, Tharparkar, Umerkot, Thatta, Tando Allayar, Naushero Feroze, Khairpur, Shaheed Benazirabad, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Sanghar, Dadu, Shahdad Kot, Jamshoro, Hyderabad, Kamber-Shahdadkot, Kashmore, Ghotki, Larkana, Matiari and Karachi have been affected by the floods. The floods have fully damaged 539,899 houses while another 848,412 houses have suffered partial damage. More than 80,000 livestock have been washed away by flood waters in Sindh while crops like cotton, banana, dates, chili and sugarcane on 2,800,000 acres have been destroyed or affected. About 31,960 villages have been badly affected by the floods. The first spell of rain started on August 11 mainly affected 7 districts of Sindh province, while an ongoing second spell has hit the entire province, including Karachi. On September 7, President Asif Ali Zardari took an aerial view of the flooded areas of Benazirabad District, Mirpur, Jhaddo, Kot Ghulam Muhammad and Nohkot and personally saw the devastation on wide scale. The President has directed the Federal and Provincial Governments as well as the concerned authorities to gear up to provide relief to the flood-affected people. The President visited the flood affected Benazirabad, brushed aside security and protocol and walked through the knee-high flood waters in the main bazaar of the town to meet the stranded people and assured that they would not be left alone in their hour of need. The President has appealed to the international community to provide humanitarian and rehabilitation assistance for the millions of people affected by this years floods. The Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, who had canceled his visit to the United States due to the floods had also appealed to the international community and philanthropists at home and abroad to step forward and help the Government rescue and rehabilitate victims of the recent torrential rains and flash floods in Sindh. The Prime Minister has constituted a high-level committee to supervise, monitor and coordinate relief and rehabilitation efforts in the rain affected areas of Sindh. The Committee is lead by MNA Qamar Zaman Kaira while other three members are Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khursheed Shah, Leader of the House in Senate, Syed Nayyar Hussain Bokhari and Raja Pervaiz Ashraf. Pakistan Cards are being issued by the government to provide financial assistance to the flood victims and Rs 20,000 will be given to each affected family. The Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) has allocated Rs.258 million and started relief work to help 400,000 displaced people in 14 union councils badly ravaged by the raging flood waters. Pakistan Army has been busy in rescue and relief operation and so far rescued more than 100,000 marooned people along with their cattle from various water inundated areas. Pakistan Navy teams are also busy in rescue work in the flood affected areas and evacuated 11,000 victims. In response to the appeal of President Zardari, China has announced that it will supply relief goods worth $4.5 million for Pakistans flood victims. Iran has announced $100 million aid for the rehabilitation of the rain-affected people of Sindh. Japan has announced emergency relief goods worth $450,000. The relief goods include tents, water purifiers and medicines. South Korea has decided to provide emergency assistance worth $200,000 in relief goods. The European Commission announced that 10 million euros would be provided in emergency relief. Donations by German people for the flood victims in Pakistan have increased to over $210 million. The Red Cross Society of China has donated $50,000 in cash as an emergency aid to Pakistan. The UN-led humanitarian community in Pakistan is seeking $337 million from donor countries for an emergency response plan to support the government in addressing the needs of flood-affected families in Sindh. The United States is sending food aid for nearly 350,000 and medical assistance for about 500,000 people. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon formally called on the international community to help Pakistan respond to the humanitarian needs of flood victims. A team of UN agencies is currently visiting the affected areas for a needs assessment.