Islamabad, Jun. 16, (dpa/GNA) – Heavy rain and strong winds lashed Pakistan’s coastal regions on Friday as a cyclone in the Arabian Sea made landfall in neighbouring India’s Gujarat state overnight, officials said.
More than 100 millimetres of rain fell within a few hours on the coastal towns of Thatta, Badin and Sujawal in the southern province of Sindh. Trees were uprooted and electricity poles brought down, officials said.
The Biparjoy cyclone sent wind gusts of up to 80 kilometres per hour onto coastal areas causing at least one death. Several dozen houses in the town of Thatta and Sujawal were damaged, the national disaster management agency said.
The exact extent of the destruction was not immediately known, Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman said.
Karachi, Pakistan’s most populous port city, was spared. Only moderate rains were recorded, disaster official Yousaf Rasool told dpa.
Streets were inundated in most parts of Sujawal, where heavy rains and windstorms continued on Friday morning, local official Imran Ali told dpa.
A similar situation persisted in Badin with weather forecasters warning that rains might continue through Saturday, disaster agency’s Meeran Jatoi said.
Authorities had evacuated more than 82,000 people from the coastal regions this week as the cyclone continued to develop in the Arabian Sea.
The cyclone was weakening into a cyclonic storm on Friday morning and was predicted to become a tropical depression by the evening, the meteorological department said, warning of more rains and strong winds.
Biparjoy was the worst cyclone to hit Pakistan in some 25 years, chief metrologist Sardar Sarfraz said, blaming rising sea temperatures.
GNA