Five girls drown in canal

Five girls drowned today while bathing in a canal near a picnic spot on the western outskirts of Pakistan’s main port city of Karachi, a doctor said.

The girls, aged between seven and 15, were picnicking along with their parents when they went for a bath and drowned, said Mohammed Salim a doctor at the state-run Abase Shagged hospital where the bodies were taken.

The victims were cousins and their other relatives pulled out the bodies, he said.

Temperatures have soared across Pakistan and Salim said the girls may have gone for a dip in the canal to beat the heat.