Doctors treat thousands of heatstroke victims in southern Pakistan as temperatures soar

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — A days-long intense heatwave has disrupted normal life in Pakistan, especially in its largest city, Karachi, where doctors treated thousands of victims of heatstroke at various hospitals, health officials said Tuesday.

Several people fell unconscious in the city and some of them later died, local media said.

Temperatures soared as high as 47 degrees Celsius (117 degrees Fahrenheit) in Sindh province on Tuesday. Authorities in Karachi, the provincial capital, are urging people to stay indoors, hydrate, and avoid unnecessary travel.

Weather forecasters say the heatwave, which began in May, will subside next week.

Currently, Karachi is in the grip of an intense heatwave.

According to local media, the days-long heatwave also killed more than two dozen people in the city, but no government spokesman was available to confirm the heatstroke-related deaths.

On Tuesday, Faisal Edhi, the head of the Edhi Foundation, which runs the country’s largest ambulance service, said they received dozens of bodies of heatstroke victims in Karachi the previous day.

Imran Sarwar Sheikh, the head of the emergency ward at the state-run Civil Hospital in Karachi, told The Associated Press that they treated 120 victims of heatstroke the previous day. Eight of those patients later died, he said.

On Monday, more than 1,500 victims of heatstroke were treated at other hospitals in the city, according to local media.

Sardar Sarfaraz, the chief meteorologist in Karachi, said temperatures will continue to rise this week across Pakistan. “Today, the weather is dry. In such conditions, the temperature starts rising,” he said.

Pakistan’s climate is warming much faster than the global average, with a potential rise of 1.3 to 4.9