Schools in Pakistan’s Karachi closed as rare August cyclone builds up

KARACHI – Heavy rain and stormy winds forced the authorities in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, to close schools on Aug 30 after a deep depression in the Arabian Sea that the weather office says could develop into a cyclonic storm.

Parts of Karachi received 147mm of rain overnight, the local weather office said, and the city’s mayor, Mr Murtaza Wahab, in a post on X asked residents to avoid “unnecessary movement”.

The deep depression off the Rann of Kutch marshes in India’s Gujarat state is expected to intensify into a cyclonic storm on Aug 30, India’s weather office said, adding that it would move north-west over the Arabian Sea in the next two days.

The authorities in Pakistan asked fishermen and sailors not to venture out to sea and warned that the storm is likely to result in flooding in cities as well as flash floods in hilly areas in the coming days.

More than 28 people died and about 18,000 have been evacuated

since Aug 25 from cities near the Gujarat coast, disaster management authorities said on Aug 29, even as more rain was expected in the state as the cyclonic storm builds up.

The formation of a cyclonic storm over the Arabian Sea in August was a rare occurrence, the Indian Express newspaper reported, saying the last such storm was in 1964. REUTERS