Authorities on high alert as Cyclone Biperjoy nears Pakistan, India

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) — India and Pakistan are on high alert as the "extremely severe" cyclone Biparjoy approaches their shores.

"Severe storm surge, high intensity winds and torrential rains" are expected on Thursday, when the Pakistan Meteorological Department forecasts the cyclone will make landfall on the country's coastal belt.

Biparjoy is currently some 760 kilometers (about 470 miles) from the Pakistani coast, with the commercial capital Karachi within the likely landfall zone, a senior official of the agency told Anadolu.

The force of the storm "has further intensified, entering the category of extremely severe from highly severe," Sardar Sarfraz said.

Now passing through the international sea boundary between southeastern Pakistan and India's western Gujarat province, Biparjoy is "most likely" to hit Pakistan's southeastern coastal areas with winds of up to 100-120 kilometers per hour and tides of up to 4 meters (about 13 feet), possibly flooding seaside areas, Sarfraz warned.

- High alert

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered rescue agencies to make "all-out efforts" to handle the situation in the case of possible floods and heavy rains.

No mandatory evacuation orders have yet been issued.

The government of the southern Sindh province, the capital of which is sprawling Karachi with over 14 million inhabitants, has banned fishing in the open sea until June 20.

It has also suspended the holidays of all rescue workers in the region, while Karachi's city administration, meanwhile barred public entry to beaches.

Port officials said they already started moving ships and boats docked at the city's two ports to the safer areas.

Cyclones have in the past hit Pakistan's coastal Sindh and Balochistan provinces, but never of this magnitude, unlike neighboring Bangladesh and India, as well as Sri Lanka, where storms have caused major destruction

The strongest cyclone to hit Pakistan was the 1999 Keti Bandar, a category-3 storm on the Saffir–Simpson scale. It resulted in the deaths of 6,200 people in Sindh's impoverished Thatta district, where Biparjoy is also likely hit.

- In India

In a press release issued on Saturday, India's Meteorological Department advised the total suspension of fishing operations in the "eastcentral and adjoining westcentral Arabian Sea till June 15"

It also advised fishers not to venture into central and northern parts of the Arabian Sea June 12-15.

The Indian Coast Guard announced that preemptive measures related to Cyclone Biparjoy continued in the Arabian Sea.

"IndiaCoastGuard Ships and Aircraft on Western Seaboard relayed weather warning to mariners and fishermen at sea," it tweeted earlier.

* Anadolu staff contributed to this story