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Heatwave in Karachi kills 65 amid power cuts

May 23, 2018 00:00:00


Residents cooling off in water jetting out from a leaking water pipeline in Karachi, Pakistan on Tuesday — Reuters

KARACHI, May 22 (Agencies): A Pakistani welfare organisation says the heatwave gripping the region amid widespread power cuts has killed 65 people in Karachi.

Anwar Kazmi, a spokesman for the private group Edhi, which is also the country's largest ambulance service, said on Tuesday that their morgue received 65 bodies over the past four days, including of people who died after losing consciousness on the streets.

He says these people died before they could be taken to hospital.

The government hasn't confirmed the death toll. According to Pakistan's state-run Meteorological Department, temperatures in Karachi could reach 44 degrees Celsius - about 111 degrees Fahrenheit - later in the day.

Climate change in recent years has caused heatwaves in Karachi, the capital of Sindh province, where 1,233 people died from the heat in 2015.

Meanwhile, dozens of people are feared to have died in a heatwave gripping Pakistan's largest city Karachi this week, a charity in the sprawling metropolis said Tuesday, as temperatures hit 42 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit).

The non-profit Edhi Foundation said scores may have been killed by the sweltering weather, with double the usual number of bodies sent to the city's morgues in recent days.

"We have received 180 dead bodies in the last four days which is more than double of what we receive normally," said Faisal Edhi, head of the welfare organisation which oversees a variety of public health projects-including morgues and ambulance services.


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