At least 14 killed as cyclone hits Pakistan coast

A POWERFUL cyclone lashed Pakistan’s southern coast on yesterday, killing at least 14 people, leaving dozens more missing and forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes.

Cyclone Yemyin packed winds of up to 130 kilometres an hour as it made landfall over the southwestern province of Baluchistan, said the director general of the Pakistan meteorological department, Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry.

At least two Pakistani fishing boats were reported to have sunk in the Arabian Sea and several more were missing with their crews, sparking a desperate search by navy and coast guard helicopters and ships.

Forecasters said a 25-feet-high storm surge was feared.

“The cyclone is likely to cause widespread destruction and coastal flooding along the Baluchistan coast due to extremely heavy rainfall, gale (force) winds and associated storm surge,” Chaudhry said.

But he added that the intensity had reduced during the last six hours.

At least 10 people, four of them children, were killed in Baluchistan, mainly by flooded rivers in coastal areas.

In Karachi four people including an eight-year-old boy were electrocuted by power lines brought down by cyclone-induced rain.