Pakistani firefighters began pulling bodies from the smouldering remains of a sprawling Karachi shopping centre on Monday where more than 60 people were still missing after a massive fire that killed at least 23 people.
The fire started late on Saturday at Gul Plaza, which houses 1,200 shops in a multi-storey complex spread across an area larger than a football field. The blaze in Karachi’s historic centre raged for more than 24 hours before it was mostly extinguished.
Videos showed fierce flames rising from the building as firefighters laboured through the night to put out the blaze. On Monday, they began cooling the structure and clearing twisted metal and debris strewn across the street, along with fallen air-conditioning units and shop signboards.
“It appears to have been caused by a circuit breaker,” Police Chief Javed Alam Odho told reporters. He noted that the nature of the goods inside – carpets, blankets, and resins – allowed the fire to simmer and spread rapidly. Rescuers added that a lack of ventilation caused thick smoke to fill the mall, slowing efforts to reach those trapped inside.
Hundreds of people surrounded the building 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.
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