Heat wave: 400 dead as Karachi sizzles

About 400 people have been killed in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi due to the country’s worst heat wave in more than a decade.

A Pakistani woman mourns as she sits beside the lifeless body of her relative, inside an ambulance. (Source: Photo by Associated Press)

The heat wave, sweeping across the Sindh province, has been going on since the start of Ramzan on Friday, wreaking havoc and triggering an emergency situation in major hospitals of the province. (Source: Photo by Associated Press)

Three major state-owned hospitals confirmed a combined death toll of 341 until Monday. Hospitals reported deaths due to heat stroke, exhaustion and low blood pressure.

Pakistani volunteers arrange the lifeless bodies of heatstroke victims at a morgue. (Source: Photo by Associated Press)

The Jinnah hospital, in four days, had treated around 3,000 people suffering from illnesses related to the heatwave.

A Pakistani man sits beside the lifeless body of his relative who died from a heatstroke, at a morgue of a charity group, in Karachi. (Source: Photo by Associated Press)

There have been deaths from the heat wave at other hospitals also and the death toll is close to 400 now.

People load a the lifeless body of their relative who died from a heatstroke, into an ambulance. (Source: Photo by Associated Press)

The Sindh government has imposed a state of emergency at all hospitals, cancelling leave of doctors and other medical staff and is increasing stocks of medical supplies.

People inquiring about the bodies of their relatives who died due to heatstroke. (Source: Photo by Associated Press)

The Pakistan Army and Paramilitary Rangers have also set up special centres for treatment of heat stroke victims and also supplied related medicines to government hospitals. (Source: Photo by Associated Press)

Pakistan’s Meteorological Department recorded Saturday as the hottest day of this year’s summer in Karachi, where the mercury shot up to 45 degrees Celsius.

People cool themselves off in polluted water near a port during a high heat wave. (Source: Photo by Associated Press)