Death toll from Pakistan heatwave tops 450

More than 450 people have died from a three-day heatwave in southern Pakistan, officials said June 23, as medics battled to treat victims after a state of emergency was declared in hospitals.

The death toll in the worst-hit city of Karachi, where temperatures reached 45 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit) at the weekend, was 450 while about another 10 people died in other parts of southern Sindh province, said Sabir Memon, a senior provincial health official.
 
"More than 450 people have died due to heat stroke in the past three days," Memon told AFP.
 
The deaths came as the overwhelmingly Muslim country of around 200 million people observes the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, during which eating and drinking is forbidden from sunrise to sunset.
 
Semi Jamali, a doctor at Karachi's largest hospital said they had treated about 3000 patients.
 
"More than 200 of them were either received dead or died in hospital," Jamali told AFP.
 
Another 67 people died in the Civil Hospital, an official there said.
 
Pakistan's largest charity, Edhi Welfare Organisation, said their two morgues in the city had received more than 400 corpses.
 
"More than 400 dead bodies have so far been received in our two mortuaries in past three days," Edhi spokesman Anwar Kazmi told AFP. "The mortuaries have reached capacity."    

In Karachi, a city of 20 million people, electricity shortages have crippled the water supply system, hampering the pumping of millions of gallons of water to consumers, the state-run water utility said.
 
Pakistan's Meteorological Office said temperatures remained at around 44.5 Celsius in Karachi on June 23 but forecast thunderstorms for the evening.
 
"Due to a...