JACOBABAD, June 17: People braved 12-hour long loadshedding from 7am to 8pm on Tuesday, causing grave inconvenience to patients, children, women and the elderly.

Many fell unconscious and had to be moved to hospitals while business activities came to a standstill due to prolonged power outage and severe heat spell.

The executive engineer of Hesco, Munawar Abbasi, blamed panel repairing of transformers at the grid station for loadshedding.

Those who could afford thronged petrol pumps to buy petrol for their power generators.Jacobabad is one of the hottest zones in South Asia where mercury rises above 52 degrees centigrade in June and July and a large number of affluent families go to cold areas like Quetta during summer to escape the heat.