A Pakistani morgue worker marks the bodies of victims killed in thunderstorms and rain at the Edhi centre in Karachi yesterday. Heavy wind and rain wreaked havoc in Pakistan's biggest city killing more than 220 people. - Reuters

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP):

A pre-monsoon thunderstorm knocked down houses, severed electrical cables and killed 228 people in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi, officials said yesterday.

The toll from Saturday's high winds and rain rose after 185 more bodies were counted in the city morgue, said Sardar Ahmed, Minister of Health for Sindh province. Initially, 43 deaths were reported.

The country's economic hub, a dynamic but chaotic city with fragile infrastructure, frequently seethes with tension and street protests, some sparked by massive power outages. The atmosphere has been particularly tense since May 12, when political unrest left more than 40 people dead.

An official at the Edhi Foundation, which runs the morgue, said many of the victims came from Gadab Town, a cluster of villages with mud houses and other flimsy structures on Karachi's eastern outskirts.

An Associated Press photographer who reached the area saw a power pylon toppled on to a two-storey building that appeared to be a poultry farm. Some homes had collapsed while others had lost their roofs.

Bodies wrapped in white

Dozens of bodies wrapped in white sheets were lined up in the morgue, where a man was seen crying near the body of his father.

Relatives have identified all 228 bodies, said Anwar Kazmi, a senior Edhi Foundation official. Among the 185 dead were eight children and 15 women, he said.

Most of the deaths were caused by collapsing homes but snapped power lines electrocuted many people in separate incidents, Ahmed said. At least 20 people were reportedly killed in electrocution incidents on Saturday.

Several people were reportedly killed by billboards and trees downed by gusting winds.

Karachi Mayor Mustafa Kamal said some 200 people were injured.

Electricity was still disrupted in some neighbourhoods yesterday. Residents, angry at having to spend a night without power to run fans or air conditioners in the sweltering summer heat, staged street protests, Kamal said.

Work on restoring the electricity supply had started and municipal workers were clearing storm-toppled trees, billboards and other debris from streets in the city on the Arabian Sea coast, he said.