Heat subsides as death toll reaches 860 in Pakistan

A Pakistani health official has said the devastating heat wave that struck the country last weekend is slowly subsiding but that the death toll is still climbing, with 860 people now reported to have died.

 Jam Mehtab Hussain, the provincial health minister in the southern Sindh province, said people were still being admitted in hospitals with heat-related ailments — though in less numbers than in previous days.

 Hussain said temperatures yesterday dropped to 34 degrees Celsius in Karachi, worst hit by the heat wave. On Sunday, temperatures had reached 45 degrees Celsius in Karachi, the capital of Sindh province.