Wind, hail and heat: Extreme weather kills at least 14 and injures 100 in Pakistan
'Destructive' windstorms that raged across central and northern Pakistan after an intense heatwave have killed at least 14 people and injured over 100 more, officials said on Sunday.
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Fierce winds, thunder and lightning swept across eastern Punjab and northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces as well as the capital Islamabad on Saturday afternoon and evening, uprooting trees and downing electric poles.
While most the deaths were caused by collapsing walls and roofs, at least two people died after being hit by solar panels dislodged by the whipping gusts.
One man was killed and three others were injured by lightning strikes.
Mazhar Hussain, a spokesperson for the Punjab provincial disaster management authority, said that such windstorms develop because of excessive heat, which reached above 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in recent days.
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'There were three to four days in the recent heatwave where temperatures went up quite a lot,' he said, announcing 14 deaths in Punjab and 100 injured.
'This windstorm was particularly destructive. The wind speed was very high. There was so much dust in it that visibility was greatly reduced.'
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