KARACHI: A man was killed in a wall collapse in Karachi’s North Nazimabad area on Friday as gusty and strong winds battered the city, turning the weather dusty.
According to Taimuria Station House Officer (SHO) Abdul Rasheed, the man was killed in a wall collapse near Five Star Chowrangi in North Nazimabad’s block L. He said the incident took place around 1:15pm when the wall of a library collapsed.
The SHO said the deceased man, 60-year-old Ratan Bagh, used to sell flowers in the area. “He was sitting against the wall when it collapsed as strong winds blew,” he said, adding that His body was shifted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for the completion of medico-legal formalities.
Two more people, including a woman, were injured in the Mawach Goth area when a wall collapsed in similar circumstances. Rescue sources added that a man in Orangi Town sustained injuries when an electricity pole, uprooted by strong winds, fell on him.
The Met Office said in a statement that strong winds were blowing in the city from the west at 25-30 knots (1kn equals 1.852kilometres per hour) as the result of a “steep pressure gradient”.
Sardar Sarfaraz, chief meteorologist at the Met department, further explained in a video clip that the pressure gradient was high in western Balochistan and Iran due to the presence of a westerly low-pressure weather system in the eastern parts of Balochistan adjoining south Punjab and upper Sindh.
This, he said, had triggered gusty winds in Karachi. He added that the speed of winds was increasing to 35kn in some areas. Sarfaraz said the windy and dusty weather in the city was likely to continue till midnight.
Cold wave in Karachi from tomorrow
Another cold wave is likely to hit Karachi from Saturday and the temperatures during it could fall upto 9-degree centigrade, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) forecasted.
According to the Met Office, the cold wave in Karachi will continue between January 22 to 26 and the temperatures could decline upto 8 or 9-degree centigrade. “The other parts of the Sindh province could also witness temperatures falling to 6-degree centigrade,” it said.
