Collapsed houses and severed electrical cables killed at least 228 people and injured 200 after heavy rains and thunderstorms lashed Karachi, Sindh Health Minister Sardar Ahmed said on Sunday.The casualty figures from SaturdayÂ’s storms rose after 185 more bodies were counted in the city morgue, he said. The initial number of dead had been reported as 43. Ahmed said an emergency had been declared at all government hospitals and doctors and paramedical staff had any leave cancelled.
An official at the Edhi Foundation, which runs the morgue, said many of the victims came from Gadap Town, a cluster of villages with mud houses and other flimsy structures on KarachiÂ’s eastern outskirts. Over 800 houses collapsed in the town and 22 people were killed, Gadap Town Nazim Ghulam Murtaza Baloch told Daily Times.
Relief camps were set up in Mullah Essa Goth, Dost Muhammad Goth and Ghulam Hussain Solangi Goth to provide food, medicine and shelter to people whose homes were destroyed or damaged there, Baloch said.
Relatives have identified and claimed all 228 bodies, said Anwar Kazmi, a senior Edhi Foundation official. Among the 185 dead were eight children and 15 women while the rest were men, he said. “Forty-three bodies were counted in city hospitals last night and now 185 bodies have been identified in the Edhi Foundation morgue,” he said.
Most of the deaths were caused by collapsing homes but snapped power lines electrocuted many people in separate incidents, Ahmed said. At least 20 people were reported killed in electrocution incidents on Saturday, when the city received 17.2 millimetres of rain within one hour. Intermittent rains continued in Karachi on Sunday and the local met office said that an average of 3mm was reported in the city.