Pakistan Hit by Worst Heat Wave in a Decade

A man cools off from a public tap after filling bottles during intense hot weather in Karachi, Pakistan, on June 23, 2015.

Akhtar Soomro—Reuters

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Pakistanis receive ice outside a hospital during a heat wave in Karachi, Pakistan, on June 24, 2015.

Qaisar Khan—Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

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People cool off at water supply pipelines during a heat wave in Karachi, Pakistan, on June 24, 2015.

Sabir Mazhar—Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

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A boy looks out from a window during a power outage in Karachi, Pakistan, on June 24, 2015.

Akhtar Soomro—Reuters

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People rush a man to a hospital as he suffers from a heatstroke in Karachi, Pakistan, on June 23, 2015.

Shakil Adil—AP

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A Pakistani patient suffering from a heatstroke receives treatment at a local hospital in Karachi, Pakistan, on June 24, 2015.

Shakil Adil—AP

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Pakistani patients suffering from heatstroke receive treatment at a local hospital in Karachi, Pakistan, on June 24, 2015.

Shakil Adil—AP

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Relatives of patients suffering from heatstrokes take shelter under trees at a local hospital in Karachi, Pakistan, on June 24, 2015.

Shakil Adil—AP

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Rescue workers move the bodies of the victims of heat wave at a mortuary in Karachi, Pakistan, on June 22, 2015.

Shahzaib Akber—EPA

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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, Pakistan, on June 21, 2015.

Akhtar Soomro—Reuters

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June 24, 2015 7:39 PM EDT

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.”