AKIPRESS.COM - A small-cyclone has torn through roofs and has brought down trees and power lines in north Pakistan, killing 45 people and injuring more than 200, officials have said.
Army teams were on their way to Peshawar to help with the rescue, a military spokesman said on Monday.
The head of the local meteorological office, Mushtaq Shah, said: “We’ve never experienced such a devastating wind storm before in this region.
“Its speed in the open was more than 75 mph and that’s what caused destruction on such a large scale. It’s a completely new phenomenon in this region.”
The wind, accompanied by heavy rain and hail late on Sunday, disrupted power supplies and telecommunications services and damaged infrastructure and crops, said a district official, Riaz Mehsud.
Those injured overwhelmed Peshawar’s main hospital, a spokesman said.
Heavy weather on Monday forced the Pakistani military to cancel two flights to Nepal taking supplies to survivors of Saturday’s earthquake, reports The Guardian.