ISLAMABAD, Jan 7: The country shivered in a severe cold snap on Sunday as temperatures hovered below freezing across a large number of cities, leaving at least four people dead.

Those who died from cold were homeless people. Two died in Karachi and the other two, originally from Khipro, died in Hyderabad.

The cities where temperatures dropped below the freezing point on Sunday included Abbottabad, Attock, Chitral, D.I. Khan, Gilgit, Islamabad, Khuzdar, Kalat, Lahore, Mianwali, Murree, Muzaffarabad, Peshawar, Parachinar, Quetta, Rawalpindi, Skardu, Zhob and Ziarat.

Skardu and Kalam were the coldest places in the country where mercury dropped to minus 14 degrees centigrade.

The director-general of the Pakistan Meteorological Department, Dr Qamaruzzaman Chaudhry, told Dawn the cold snap – being blamed on icy winds from Siberia – would lose much of its bite over the next 24 to 36 hours.

He, however, cautioned that January would continue to experience dry and cold weather. It might become the coldest month of the year.

He said winter this year was slightly severer than previous years, with most cities experiencing temperatures much below their average January temperatures.

According to the PPI news agency, the tomato crop in Badin, spread over 45,000 acres, has been adversely affected by the cold snap.