Faisal Edhi's boat capsizes during rescue operation in Karachi's Malir river

KARACHI: The boat of philanthropist Faisal Edhi capsized during a rescue operation in Malir river on Wednesday.

Edhi, the head of one of Pakistan's largest charity groups Edhi Foundation, along with his team members, was taking part in relief operations after the recent torrential rains wrecked havoc in the city.

According to a PTI spokesperson, Edhi was patrolling the river in a boat with PTI MPA Raja Azhar and the team of five were searching for people in need of rescue when their boat capsized. 

The Edhi officials were drowning when they were rescued by fishermen in a fishing boat and were shifted to Ibrahim Hyderi.

Residents of different districts in Sindh — including Karachi, Hyderabad, Thatta, and Tharparkar — suffered prolonged power outages and inundated roads as heavy rainfall lashed southern Pakistan on Monday and Tuesday, with the provincial government consequently announcing an emergency.

Rains break Karachi's 90-year-old record

According to The News, the Met Office on Tuesday confirmed that the 90-year record of the monsoon downpour was broken after yesterday’s rainfall in Karachi in August this year.

The 90-year record was broken after a 345mm downpour was recorded at Karachi’s PAF Faisal Base in August this year, making it the wettest month since 1931, which previously recorded rainfall up to to 298.4mm in 1984, reported The News.

The most amount of rainfall up to 272mm was recorded at Masroor Base in 2007, whereas, August 2020’s downpour was recorded up to 228.5mm and is still continuing. In 1979, 262.5mm rain had been recorded in MOS Old Airport while the recent downpour was 168.9 in the same area.

According to the Met Office, 114mm rain was recorded in Gulshan-e-Hadeed, 83mm in Saddar, 81mm in Landhi, 77.8mm at University Road, 76.6mm in Nazimabad, 70.8mm in Saadi Town, 65.8mm at Jinnah Terminal, 49.8mm in North Karachi, 42.8 in Surjani and the lowest amount of downpour was 21.9mm in Keamari.

The Met Office on Monday had forecast heavy rainfall in the city till Thursday, warning that urban flooding could take place in the city.