“Destructive” windstorms that raged throughout central and northern Pakistan after an intense heatwave have killed at the least 14 folks and injured over 100 extra, officers stated Sunday.
Fierce winds, thunder and lightning swept throughout japanese Punjab and northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces in addition to the capital Islamabad on Saturday afternoon and night, uprooting timber and downing electrical poles.
While the vast majority of the deaths have been attributable to collapsing partitions and roofs, at the least two folks died after being hit by photo voltaic panels dislodged by the whipping gusts.
One man was killed and three others have been injured by lightning strikes.
Mazhar Hussain, a spokesperson for the Punjab provincial catastrophe administration authority, advised AFP that such windstorms develop due to extreme warmth, which reached above 45 levels Celsius (113 levels Fahrenheit) in current days.
“There were three to four days in the recent heatwave where temperatures went up quite a lot,” he stated, asserting 14 deaths in Punjab and 100 injured.
“This windstorm was particularly destructive. The wind speed was very high. There was so much dust in it that visibility was greatly reduced.”
The Pakistan Meteorological Department predicted extra storms on Sunday.
Social media was replete on Saturday night with movies of the injury the windstorms had unleashed.
A clip filmed inside a airplane about to land in Punjab’s metropolis of Lahore confirmed passengers screaming in terror because the plane was tossed about by turbulence.
The airplane was later diverted to Karachi.
Other movies present automobiles crushed by falling timber and roads blocked by particles.
Pakistan, one of many nations most weak to the results of local weather change, is grappling with more and more frequent excessive climate occasions.
Islamabad skilled a number of normally uncommon hail storms all through April and May that broken automobiles, smashing window panes and shattering photo voltaic panels.
Soaring temperatures in April and May have gotten extra widespread in Pakistan, which normally sees summer season start in early June.
Temperatures reached near-record ranges in April, as excessive as 46.5C (115.7F) in components of Punjab.
Schools in Punjab and Balochistan have introduced early summer season holidays due to the warmth.
Source: www.anews.com.tr