Cyclone Phet Hits Pak Coast Kills four, Indian among Oman Dead

Cyclone Phet weakened Sunday after reaching two coastal districts of Pakistan’s southern Sindh province, said media reports citing officials.

Heavy rains and winds lashed Karachi, the provincial capital, killing at least four people as the cyclone spun along the Pakistani coast after killing 15 people in Oman.

“The cyclone moved rapidly eastwards in last six hours and went away from Karachi’s coast” after hitting Sindh’s Thatta and Badin coastal districts, Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry, of Pakistan’s meteorological department, told AFP.

“The cyclone will turn into depression in the next 12 hours, which will result in further widespread rains in Karachi and other coastal parts of Sindh,” he said.

Cyclone Phet was earlier expected to landfall near Karachi with maximum winds of 100 kilometres an hour after it hit Oman’s coast, where 15 people died.

Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from vulnerable coastal villages in Sindh, but thousands more refused to abandon their homes.