Karachi, Jan 19: The death toll from a major fire at a shopping mall in Pakistan’s Karachi city rose to 21 on Monday, while around 65 people remain missing, officials said.
Authorities said the toll could increase further following the blaze, which broke out late Saturday night at Gul Plaza, a wholesale and retail market housing shops in the basement, mezzanine and three additional floors. The fire was brought under control by Sunday night.
In separate statements issued shortly after 4 pm local time, the Edhi service and Rescue 1122 said the death toll from the incident has risen to 21 as more bodies were recovered from the now-gutted shopping plaza.
The bodies were being taken to Civil Hospital Karachi, the services said.
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has announced PKR 10 million in compensation for each deceased person’s family.
Addressing a press conference earlier in the day, Shah said, “There has been a considerable loss of lives in this incident. I cannot give a final number as of yet… As per the latest figures as of 1 pm, around 65 people who were reported to have come to Gul Plaza are missing. So, in total, around 80 people [have died] in this.”
“There can be no price tag on a life. Their grief cannot be compensated in any way, but we are announcing Rs 10 million from the government for each person who lost their life,” he said.
Shah said 40 per cent of the mall’s building has collapsed, adding that the rest of it was also in a poor state.
“We might need to demolish the entire building,” the chief minister said.
According to Karachi Commissioner Hassan Naqvi, the death toll could surge to over 50.
Six bodies were found immediately after the fire broke out. They had died due to suffocation, while dozens of others were sent to hospitals. However, as the fire spread, rescue teams were unable to go in.
“Once the fire was doused, we didn’t wait for the cooling period and forcibly went in to rescue trapped people, and we found eight more bodies, some badly charred,” Rescue 1122 Chief Operating Officer (COO) Abid Jalal said.
He told PTI on Monday morning that the fire had almost completely damaged the building, with one back and one front portion collapsing because of weak pillars.
“The building structure has been weakened by the fire, and we are continuing to search for any remaining people because we could see more structural collapses,” Jalal said.
The market, which had around 1,200 shops on all floors, has been one of Karachi’s landmarks since the early 1980s on the main M A Jinnah Road in the Saddar commercial area.
Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori, who came to the site this morning, said, “We are extremely concerned and alarmed. Efforts are going on to find them, but this is a national tragedy.”
South DIG Syed Asad Raza told the media that the casualties could increase because there was still a lot more space to be covered to find survivors.
He said an electrical short circuit might have caused the fire, but the cause is yet to be confirmed.
Sadiq Tunio, in charge of the Karachi Water Board’s Hydrant Cell, said about 1.4 million gallons of water have so far been used to extinguish the fire. He said the water was supplied from seven different hydrants across Karachi.
Gul Plaza is not the first shopping mall to catch fire in Karachi, as in recent years there have been several incidents due to a lack of safety, inadequate fire-fighting systems, overloaded electrical systems and illegal constructions in Pakistan’s biggest city.
In 2024, a government audit found that in 266 shopping malls and commercial buildings located on major roads, only six had proper fire safety measures, with 62 per cent lacking emergency exits and 70 per cent having substandard electrical systems.
In December 2024, in an adjacent building to Gul Plaza, also built in the early 1980s, fire broke out on two floors but was quickly brought under control.
In 2012, at least 259 people were killed when a fire broke out in a garment factory in Baldia town. (PTI)
