Thousands of people are streaming into camps seeking refuge from the conflict between Pakistan's army and Taleban rebels in the country's north-west.
Most of the civilians come from Mingora, the main city in the Swat valley, where a curfew was temporarily lifted to allow residents to leave.
Reports say the road out of Mingora is filled with buses and trucks, each one overcrowded, with people on the roofs.
The UN says 830,000 people have left their homes within the past month.
The total number of people internally displaced within Pakistan over the past 12 months has risen to around 1.3m.
An estimated 80,000 of those are now living in camps run by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), based around the city of Mardan.
Pakistan's Prime Minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, has described the situation as the country's worst refugee crisis since the bloody partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 at the end of colonial rule.
'No hope'
The army has blockaded the town of Mingora, the administrative hub of the Swat valley, previously a popular tourist and ski resort but in recent years the focus of a Taleban uprising.
 |  Owen Bennett-Jones, Islamabad There are currently three separate large-scale military offensives in the north-west of Pakistan. People leaving the affected areas are terrified by the scale of the army action. Stories are circulating about the terrible decisions war imposes. One family in Swat for example is said to have left behind a son who could not be moved because he is a polio victim. They gave him a supply of bread and water and left him on his own as they headed for safety. For the moment public opinion is with the army. Those who have actually lived under the Taleban held areas have been particularly disgusted by the floggings and the beheadings. But the generals know the public mood could change if there are too many civilian casualties.  |
The first wave of people left Mingora a week ago, and food and other vital supplies are now scarce inside the city, says the BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad.
But the army remains reluctant to engage in street-to-street combat with militants while large numbers of civilians remain in Mingora, she adds, and authorities are keen to allow as many civilians as possible to leave the city.
After days under curfew and bitter fighting between government troops and rebels, buses were laid on to ferry to safety some of the 150,000 civilians thought to remain inside Mingora.
Local official Arshad Khan told the AFP news agency people were leaving their homes "in large numbers".
The road from the southern edge of the conflict zone towards Mandar was clogged with buses, trucks, motorbikes and rickshaws throughout Friday. A BBC correspondent near Mandar, Abdul Hasan Kakar, estimated that about 400 trucks and buses headed towards the city this morning.
Residents were angry both at the Taleban and the security forces, our correspondent said, with the Taleban reported still to be in control of the streets of Mingora and locals accusing both sides of "atrocities" against civilians.
One man, identified only as Ibrahim, told AFP the constant bombing and shelling barrage had left him with "no hope for life".
"We are going to Mardan. We are just going to sit under a tree somewhere. We just want some safety for our children," he said.
Aid call
Up to 15,000 troops have now been deployed in the Swat valley and neighbouring areas to take on some 5,000 militants.
The army said on Friday that it killed 55 militants across Swat over the previous 24 hours, with three Pakistani security personnel also killed.
In a statement, the army also said a leading Taleban commander, Dawa Noor, identified as an instigator of the Taleban's recent move into Buner, south of Swat, was among those killed.
 People have been getting used to new living conditions |
But a Taleban spokesman, Muslim Khan, says the militants have killed at least 37 soldiers in fighting since Wednesday, with just three of their fighters killed.
The BBC's Ilyas Khan, in Karachi, says independent confirmation of these claims is difficult as the phone system across Swat is down and tens of thousands of mobile phones have gone dead because of a lack of electricity.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres has warned that the plight of displaced people could spark further conflict.
The UN has called for a massive and urgent injection of emergency humanitarian aid.
The Pakistani government began its offensive in the Swat valley in late April.
In February, it had signed a peace agreement with the Taleban there, allowing Sharia law to be enforced - a move sharply criticised by Washington.
But the militants then expanded into neighbouring districts, prompting the government to abandon the peace deal.
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