More than 200 people have died in a heatwave in southern Pakistan, officials said on Monday as the government called in the army to helk tackle a devastating heat wave in parts of the country.
Some reports say the figure of those who have died has reached four hundred.
The death toll in Karachi, the country’s largest city, where temperatures hit 45C at the weekend, is at least 202 and a further 11 deaths were reported in southern parts of central Punjab province.
National Disaster Management (NDMA) spokesman Ahmed Kamal said the government had asked the army and paramilitary rangers to help relief efforts which will include setting up heatstroke treatment centres around the city.
Coping with the scorching heat has been made harder by the power cuts that are a daily feature of life in Pakistan.
The government of Sindh, the province where Karachi is located, has imposed a state of emergency at all hospitals, cancelling leave for doctors and other medical staff and increasing stocks of medical supplies.
Doctors say most of those who have died succumbed to heatstroke.
In Karachi, a city of 20 million people, electricity shortages crippled the water supply system, hampering the pumping of millions of gallons of water to consumers, the state-run water utility said.
Pakistan’s Met Office said temperatures hit 43 C in Karachi on Sunday and 49 C in the southwestern city of Turbat, close to the Iranian border.
More hot and humid weather is predicted for the coming 24 hours, though thunderstorms forecast for later in the week could bring cooler weather.
The deaths come a month after neighbouring India suffered the second deadliest heatwave in its history, with more than 2,000 killed.
Hundreds of mainly poor people die at the height of summer every year in India, but this year’s toll was the second highest in the country’s history.
