KARACHI: Warning to beachgoers

Published July 1, 2007

KARACHI, June 30: Beachgoers have been advised not to go in to deep waters as 10 to 15 feet HUCW (high under current waves) were likely to hit the 37-kilometre Karachi beach between 10am and late in the evening on Sunday.

Chief of the Emergency Response Centre (ERC) of the City District Government Karachi Zafar Khan told PPI on Saturday that these HUCWs were seemingly calm while hitting the beach but had a tendency of dragging away a swimmer and penetrating up to 10 feet deep into the bottom of the sea.

He identified Hawkesbay, Cape Mount, Sonehra Point and Neelum Point as the most dangerous because of the existence of invisible underwater rocks there.Around 35000 people visit the beaches on weekends crowding various points right from the Sea View up to the Mubarak Village.

Mr Khan said the 45-strong ERC team under his command covered an 18-kilometre portion of the beaches having 10 different points. Advising people not to risk their life by resorting to swimming or bathing in deep waters, he recalled that just a couple of weeks back, four youths coming from Malir and Sohrab Goth areas drowned at Neelum Point.

He said that the team had rescued a total of 37 drowning people last year and another eight this year. He said although security along the beaches had been enhanced, there were limitations and extreme caution on the part of beach visitors was a must.—PPI