Pakistani firefighters on Monday sifted through the smoldering wreckage of a vast shopping mall in Karachi, searching for more than 60 people still unaccounted for after a massive blaze that killed at least 14.
The fire broke out late Saturday at Gul Plaza, a multistory complex housing about 1,200 shops and spanning an area larger than a football field in the city’s historic center.
Video footage showed towering flames engulfing the building as crews battled through the night to contain the inferno. By Monday, firefighters were cooling the charred structure and clearing mangled metal and debris littering the street, including collapsed air-conditioning units and torn shop signboards.
Rescue teams warned the remaining shell of the building was dangerously unstable and could collapse at any moment.
Hundreds of people surrounded the site to watch the rescue efforts, including shop owners whose life’s work was reduced to ash overnight.
"We’ve been left high and dry, reduced to zero, 20 years of hard work, all gone,” said shop owner Yasmeen Bano.
Police chief Javed Alam Odho said 14 people had been killed and about 60 others were still missing.
"The rescue efforts are underway, and we hope they can be completed as soon as possible, but I can’t provide a timeframe,” he said, adding that about 18 people injured in the fire had been released from the hospital.
"As the rescue operations continue, the number of casualties may rise,” Odho said.
Anger flared when Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab visited the site late Sunday, about 23 hours after the fire began, with crowds chanting anti-government slogans and protesting the fire department’s response time, local media reported.
Cause under investigation
According to rescue services, authorities received the first emergency call at 10:38 p.m. Saturday (5:38 p.m. GMT), reporting that ground-floor shops were on fire.
By the time firefighters arrived, the flames had already spread to the upper floors, engulfing much of the building.
Images from inside the mall showed charred storefronts and a bright orange glow as flames continued to rise throughout the structure.
Firefighters said Gul Plaza’s lack of ventilation caused thick smoke to fill the mall and slowed efforts to reach people trapped inside.
"It appears to have been caused by a circuit breaker,” Odho told reporters Sunday.
"The layout and construction of this market, combined with the nature of the items inside, such as carpets, blankets and other resin-based materials, meant the fire continued to smolder,” he said.
The blaze could be Karachi’s deadliest since a 2012 fire at an industrial site that killed more than 260 people. A court ruled in 2020 that the earlier case involved arson.