![A man cools off from a public tap after filling bottles during intense hot weather in Karachi, heatwave pakistan](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/pakistan-heat-wave-4.jpg?quality=85&w=2400)
The death toll in Pakistan’s scorching heat wave, at least 838 deaths as of Wednesday afternoon, continues to rise.
At its epicenter is Karachi, home to 20 million people and the capital of the southern Sindh province. With temperatures reaching 113 degrees, hours-long power outages and insufficient running water contributed to make this heat wave the worst in a decade, the Associated Press reports.
The army has set up special heatstroke centers to help local officials deal with the situation, Maj. Gen. Asghar Nawaz, chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority, said. But hospitals have struggled to help victims, as most of them were the elderly, women and children. “Unfortunately, many victims were already unconscious when they were brought to our hospital in the past three or four days,” said Seemi Jamali, a spokeswoman for Karachi’s main Jinnah Hospital. “It was difficult to help them.”
Read next: Pakistan Declares a State of Emergency as Heat Wave Death Toll Soars to Nearly 800
![A man cools off from a public tap after filling bottles during intense hot weather in Karachi, heatwave pakistan](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/pakistan-heat-wave-4.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
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![Heatwave in Pakistan Pakistan Heatwave](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/pakistan-heat-wave-91.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![A boy stands while looking outside a window of a building due to the heat during a power outage in Karachi heatwave pakistan](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/pakistan-heat-wave-5.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Pakistan Heatstroke Pakistan Heatstroke](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/pakistan-heat-wave-9.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![APTOPIX Pakistan Heatstroke Pakistan Heatstroke](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/pakistan-heat-wave-10.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
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![Heatwave killed more than 150 in Pakistan Heatwave Pakistan](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/pakistan-heat-wave-6.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![A volunteer sits beside a window, while waiting for the relatives of a deceased who died due to intense hot weather to collect the body, at Edhi Foundation morgue in Karachi heatwave pakistan](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/pakistan-heat-wave-3.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
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