Faisalabad (AsiaNews) – An extraordinary heat wave in Pakistan has killed at least 196 people across the country as temperatures pass the 50° mark. According to official information, Punjab is the zone hardest-hit, with around 120 dead and several hospital admissions. Many people across the country have fainted as a result of the burning temperatures.

Health workers in the province of Sindh talk of a death toll in the zone of some 55 people.

The highest temperature was recorded in Jacobabad, where mercury columns on thermometers reached 52° centigrade last Friday.

Meteorologists predict temperatures will drop in a third of the areas hit by the heat wave, which will last until tomorrow at least.

In the last nine days, there were five deaths and hundreds of fainting fits in Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

Hospitals are full: sunstroke and gastro-enteritis are the most common complaints. A health official in Punjab said: "In all the 6,000 hospitals and medical units of the province, we have had many cases of sunstroke and dehydration."

Similar degrees of heat in neighbouring Afghanistian have caused the snow on the Hindukush mountains to melt, provoking swollen water flows in northern Pakistan: around 300 familis were forced to leave their homes because of floods. The waters of the Kabul and Swat rivers burst through their banks and the army went to victims' aid.

June and July are the hottest months in Pakistan before the rainy season. (QF)