Ten killed, 22 injured in Karachi shopping mall fire

A fire tore through a shopping mall in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, killing at least nine people, officials and local media said on Saturday. Local broadcaster Geo News said the blaze started early in the morning at the multi-storey RJ shopping mall in Pakistan’s most populous city. The fire brigade rescued around 50 people but more are believed to be trapped inside the building. Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui confirmed in a post on social media platform X that at least ten bodies had been transferred to local hospitals after the fire. “I can so far confirm 10 casualties and 22 people have been injured,” he wrote. He stated that the fire had been extinguished and the cooling process was under way. “The search process continues,” he added.

Fire had been extinguished & cooling process is going on. I can so far confirm 10 casualties & 22 persons have been injured https://t.co/x3I873U7fG

— Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui (@murtazawahab1) November 25, 2023

The cause of the blaze was not immediately clear. Geo reported several people injured in the fire were also being treated in hospital. Earlier, police surgeon Summaiya Syed told Dawn.com that ten bodies had been taken to hospitals — eight to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and one to Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK). Wahab said one was also taken to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. She further said that an 18-year-old was currently admitted at CHK. District East Deputy Commissioner (DC) Altaf Shaikh, who was personally supervising the rescue operation, said 30 others, including the wounded, had been rescued. The DC added that the building had been evacuated till the fourth floor while clearance of the fifth floor was under way. He said the exact cause of the fire would be ascertained after a proper investigation once the rescue operation was completed. The building was a commercial high-rise that housed shopping centres, call centres and software houses.