Heatwave kills 65 people in Pakistan as scorching 44C temperatures persist

A heatwave has killed 65 people in Pakistan's southern city of Karachi, a social welfare organisation said, amid fears the death toll could climb as the high temperatures persist.

The heatwave in the last few days coincided with power outages and the holy month of Ramadan, when most Muslims do not eat or drink during daylight hours.

Temperatures hit 44C on Monday, local media reported.

Faisal Edhi, who runs the Edhi Foundation that operates morgues and an ambulance service in Pakistan's biggest city, said the deaths occurred mostly in the poor areas of Karachi.

"Sixty-five people have died over the last three days," Mr Edhi told Reuters. "We have the bodies in our cold storage facilities and their neighbourhood doctors have said they died of heat-stroke."

Sindh province's Health Secretary Fazlullah Pechuho has denied that heat-stroke was the cause of death, saying: "Only doctors and hospitals can decide whether the cause of death was heat-stroke or not. I categorically reject that people have died due to heat-stroke in Karachi".

Nonetheless, reports of heat stroke deaths in Karachi will stir unease amid fears of a repeat of a heatwave in of 2015, when morgues and hospitals were overwhelmed and at least 1,300 mostly elderly and sick people died from the searing heat.

In 2015, the Edhi morgue ran out of freezer space after about 650 bodies were brought in the space of a few days. Ambulances left decaying corpses outside in sweltering heat.

The provincial government has assured residents that there would be no repeat of 2015 and was working on ensuring those in need of care receive rapid treatment.

Mr Edhi said most of the dead brought to the morgue were working class factory workers who came from the low-income Landhi and Korangi areas of Karachi.

"They work around heaters and boilers in textile factories and there is eight to nine hours of (scheduled power outages) in these areas," he said.

Temperatures are expected to stay above 40C until Thursday, local media reported.