Pakistan was preparing to face a severe tropical cyclone' as it slowly moved north-eastward towards the southern coast of the country, officials said Thursday, dpa reported.
Nilofar developed several days ago in the Arabian Sea and was changing from a 'very severe' to 'severe' category tropical cyclone as it moved towards Pakistan's Sindh province and the neighbouring Indian state of Gujarat.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said the cyclone was likely to cross the adjoining coastal areas of lower Sindh and Gujarat as a depression with a wind speed of 70-80 kilometres per hour by Friday night.
Aleemul Hassan of the PMD said that the cyclone would bring widespread heavy rains, accompanied by strong gusty winds in Sindh and coastal areas of Balochistan in the south-west from Thursday until Saturday.