The cyclone caused massive destruction in Thatta, Badin and Ketty Bandar districts where at least 600 villages were seriously affected and there was vast damage to rice and sugarcane crops and property, officials said.

Many villages were left deluged by mud and water, with bodies strewn among the debris of collapsed homes, amid fears the death toll could rise as rescue workers pull out the dead from the mud-caked rubble.

Authorities have set up two camps here, housing about 8,000 people hit by the storm, mainly poor farmers and fishermen who have lost everything in the storm.

Abid Hussain, in charge of the government's emergency cell in this major coastal town, 155 kilometers southeast of Karachi said early today: ``We confirm 150 deaths.''

At least 86 bodies had beenrecovered from the worst-affected towns of Jati and Raj Malik in Thatta district while another 28 died in Badin area.Dozens more were reported dead in smaller towns and villages, Hussain said.

But rescue workers and locals put the death toll at some 225 dead and said thousands had been uprooted since the cyclone lashed the coastal regions on Thursday.

``We have unconfirmed reports of hundreds missing but the picture will only be clear once the rescue work is over,'' said Sindh governor Moeenuddin Haider.

Witnesses said more bodies were found washed up on the shore and others were dug out of the mud by army and navy personnel as the floodwaters receded.

The military was making air drops of food parcels to those stranded by the floodwaters, cut off from any other help, witnesses said.

Villagers from coastal districts who lost everything in the disaster sat in the mud surrounded by the debris of uprooted trees, electricity poles and hundreds of damaged mud houses, they said.

The president of thePakistani Fishermen's Association, Mohammad Ali Shah, claimed up to 450 fishermen were still missing, but officials said they believed the figure was inflated.

Officials said about 50,000 houses and huts were damaged and around 1,52,000 acres of farmland had been seriously damaged and probably made temporarily uncultivable.

President Mohammad Rafiq Tarar expressed his ``deep shock and grief'' at the devastation and said the government would provide ``all possible assistance.''