Islamabad, Jun. 26, (dpa/GNA) – Hospitals were treating thousands of heatstroke victims in Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi as another heatwave hit the climate-vulnerable nation, officials said on Wednesday.

More than 1,700 people had been given medical aid in the southern province of Sindh as temperature climbed to 49 degrees Celsius, said Mehar Khursheed, spokeswoman for health department.

More than 20 suspected heatstroke victims were brought to the hospitals dead in Karachi on Monday and Tuesday, police spokeswoman Summiya Syed said.

Most of the dead were either chronic drug addicts or homeless people who died after exposure to sun amid high humidity in the coastal city and quiet sea winds, she added.

People in the metropolis of more than 20 million had been asked to stay indoors, hydrate and avoid the sun.  

The heatwave, the second of this summer, is likely to subside in the coming days as monsoon rains arrive, chief metrologist Sardar Sarfraz said.

Schools were shut, hospitals declared emergencies, and heat relief camps were set up in Pakistani cities when temperatures cruised to over 50 degrees Celsius during the first heatwave in May.

This is the third consecutive year of temperatures breaching 50 degrees in Pakistan, a level that poses immense risk to human and livestock, Sarfraz said. GNA