Four boats and two ships Tuesday were stranded in cyclone in Arabian Sea off Karachi coast and large scale rescue operation is underway, a Pakistani Navy spokesman said.

The cyclone "Yemyn 03B" is heading northwest to coastline areas of Pakistan's southwest province Baluchistan after bypassing port city Karachi, capital of southern province Sindh, local meteorological officials said.

"There are four boats and two ships stranded about 100 nautical miles from south of Karachi," Navy spokesman commander Salman said, "These two are commercial ships and four boats are expected to be fishing boats."

Pakistani Navy has sent dispatched two helicopters and a ship for rescue, according to the spokesman, who however did not give the exact number of people on the ships and boats.

Salman said the boats and ships are in different locations.

He told the private DAWN NEWS TV channel that Pakistani navy is not in contact with the stranded boats, whose exact location is still not clear.

Earlier, the stranded boats had communicated to the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and the KPT authorities informed the navy about the incident, according to the official.

Authorities had ordered evacuation of fishing settlements and villages near the coastal areas of Sindh and Baluchistan on Monday after an earlier warning said a cyclone was expected to hit the country's coastline on Tuesday.

Source: Xinhua