Heavy rain and strong winds kill at least 27 in Pakistan as Cyclone Biparjoy approaches

PESHAWAR – Heavy rain followed by strong winds killed at least 27 people, including eight children, in north-west Pakistan, as a cyclone approaches Pakistan and India from the Arabian Sea.

“At least 12 people were buried alive after the roofs and walls of their houses collapsed,” Mr Taimur Ali Khan, a spokesman for the provincial disaster management authority, told AFP on Sunday.

The storms hit four districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province late on Saturday, with 15 people killed in Bannu district, including five siblings aged between two and 11.

More than 140 people were injured and more than 200 livestock had died, the spokesman said.

The authorities have declared an emergency in all four of the districts.

In 2022, Pakistan was lashed by unprecedented monsoon rains over the summer that put a third of the country under water, damaging two million homes and killing more than 1,700 people.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Sunday urged people to stay away from shorelines as Cyclone Biparjoy – which is heading towards the coastal areas of Pakistan and India – was about 760km south of Karachi.

Over the past few days, the Karachi commissioner has banned entry to beaches there, as well as fishing, sailing, swimming and bathing in seas within the territorial limit of Karachi owing to the threat, until the end of the storm.

The warnings came as the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) in its daily forecast located the cyclone near latitude 18 deg 1 min north and longitude 67 deg 5 min east, and said the system is “likely to keep tracking farther in the north-northeast direction during the next 24 hours”.

The PMD added that the cyclone will then re-curve north-eastwards on Wednesday and cross between Keti Bandar in the south-east of Sindh province and India’s Gujarat coast.

The forecast noted that “dust-raising/gusty winds are expected in central/southern districts of the country” on Sunday and Monday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the NDMA quoted the Pacific Disaster Centre (PDC) stating that around 1.38 million people from Pakistan and India were exposed to the cyclone, and 305,755 of these people belonged to vulnerable populations.

It added that the cyclone had sustained winds of 185kmh with gusts of up to 232kmh.

The PDC’s website also said the system is “forecast to remain on a generally northward trajectory through 72 hours, after which the bulk of the guidance indicates an eastward turn”.

On Saturday night, the PMD had advised the authorities concerned to be on “high alert” as the system could cause flooding, particularly in low-lying areas, among other damage.

“The cyclone over the east-central Arabian Sea has formed an eye, indicating that the system has grown more organised and more powerful,” chief meteorologist Sardar Sarfaraz told Dawn newspaper.

According to him, the cyclone was, at that moment, moving towards the coastal areas of Karachi, Thatta, Sujawal, Badin and Tharparkar, among other areas.

Indian authorities issues alert

The Indian Meteorological Department also tweeted a “yellow message” alert for its Saurashtra-Kutch coast.

It forecast the system to cross Saurashtra and Kutch and the adjacent Pakistan coast at around noon on Thursday while remaining a “very severe” category cyclone.

ANI news agency shared a video of high tides on Mumbai’s coast ahead of the cyclone.

In a separate report, it said Delhi witnessed a “sudden change in weather with temperatures falling below 40 deg C”.

ANI quoted the New Delhi Regional Weather Forecasting Centre as saying that “thunderstorms, light-intensity rains and gusty winds” were predicted in Delhi. AFP, DAWN/ASIA NEWS NETWORK