Storm kills 22 people in southern Pakistan

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A wild storm and heavy rains lashed Pakistan's largest city, collapsing houses, flooding streets and leaving at least 22 people dead, an official said Friday. The damage in Karachi, a teeming city of 15 million people, was not widespread, but officials were still assessing the situation from the overnight storm and the death toll could rise, said Anwar Kazi, a spokesman for the Edhi Foundation, a private relief service. The foundation pulled at least 22 bodies and 24 injured people from collapsed houses, he said, adding rain water had inundated several roads and residential areas, disrupting traffic in the city. It was the worst storm to hit southern Pakistan since June, when more than 200 people died in Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, when severe weather knocked down dozens of houses and severed electrical cables.