More than 120 dead in Pakistan heatwave

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   Relatives shift the dead body of a heatwave victim in Pakistan

A heatwave in Pakistan has killed more than 120 people, according to health officials, with the majority of deaths reported in the country’s largest city Karachi.

“Since Saturday 114 people have died in Karachi and eight others [have died] in three districts of Sindh,” provincial health secretary Saeed Mangnejo said.

Mr Mangnejo said the provincial government had imposed a state of emergency at all hospitals, cancelled leave for doctors and other medical staff, and increased stocks of medical supplies.

The southern port city of Karachi saw temperatures reach as high as 45 degrees Celsius on Saturday, just short of an all-time high in the city of 47C in June 1979.

Dr Seemin Jamali, the head of the emergency department at state-run Jinnah Hospital, said more than 100 people had died at the hospital.

“They all died of heat stroke,” Dr Jamali said.

Pakistan’s meteorological department said temperatures were likely to fall in the coming days, but doctors advised people to avoid exposure to the sun and wear light cotton clothes.

The high temperatures were made worse by frequent power outages, sparking protests in several parts of Karachi, a sprawling city of 20 million.

Electricity cuts also crippled Karachi’s water supply system, hampering the pumping of millions of gallons of water to consumers, the state-run water utility said.

Prime minister Nawaz Sharif had warned electric supply companies that he would not tolerate power outages during Ramadan, an official in his office said.

Karachi University said in a statement that it had postponed its exams for at least one month due to the extreme weather.

Social welfare organisation, the Edhi Foundation, said its mortuary had been packed to capacity with heatwave deaths and other casualties, with 150 bodies were placed there.

“We had to bury some 30 unclaimed bodies to make room in the mortuary,” Edhi official Anwar Kazmi said.

AFP