Hot weather kills dozens in Pakistan

More than 120 people have died during a heatwave in Karachi and other areas of Pakistan’s southern Sindh province, according to health officials.

Officials said all the deaths had occurred since Saturday evening when temperatures in Karachi saw temperatures reached 113 degrees Fahrenheit (F), just below the port city’s all-time high of 116.6 F set in June 1979.

The extreme heat comes days after Pope Francis issued an encyclical on climate change that affirmed the reality of man-made global warming and emphasized that climate change has a disproportionate impact on the poor. 

Dr. Seemin Jamali, the head of the emergency department at state-run Jinnah Hospital said more than 100 people had died at the hospital.

"They all died of heat stroke," she said, adding that many of the deceased were elderly, according to a local website.

Hot and humid weather is expected to continue through Monday but temperatures should fall in the coming days, according to Pakistan's Meteorological Department.

The high temperatures were made worse by frequent power outages, sparking protests in several parts of Karachi, a sprawling city of 20 million, and elsewhere in the area, according to PakistanToday.

Electricity cuts in turn crippled Karachi's water supply system, hampering the pumping of millions of gallons of water to consumers, the state-run water utility said.

Last month, India recorded thousands of deaths during a period of extreme heat.

Al Jazeera and wire services