Karachi mall fire death toll rises to at least 21, Pakistani official says

The death toll from a fire at a shopping mall in Karachi over the weekend has risen to at least 21, according to Pakistani authorities, as the search for dozens of missing people continues.

Mohammed Ameen, who was running operations at the site for the Edhi emergency services non-profit, said on Monday that 21 people had died in the fire, including a child.

Murad Ali Shah, chief minister of the southern province of Sindh, including Karachi, told reporters that 65 people were still missing while 22 others who had been injured were discharged from the hospital.

Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori, who visited the site on Monday, told local media that “more than 70” people were missing.

“The reports of more than 70 missing persons are extremely alarming and constitute a major tragedy,” said Tessori, adding that the incident has now “turned into a national tragedy”.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement that “in this time of grief and hardship, we stand with the affected families and the Sindh government”.

Qasir Khan said his wife, daughter-in-law and her mother had gone to the mall on Saturday evening and were still missing.

“The bodies will come out in pieces from here. No one will be able to recognise them,” Khan told the Reuters news agency, placing blame on slow rescue efforts.

“They [rescuers] could have saved a lot of people,” he added.

Kosar Bano also said six of her family had gone to the mall to shop for a wedding, with the last she heard from them saying they would be home in 15 minutes.

“The only hope we have is how many hands we will find, how many fingers we will find, and how many legs we will find. That’s it,” she told Reuters.

For others, the flame engulfed livelihoods.

“We’ve been left high and dry, reduced to zero; 20 years of hard work, all gone,” shopkeeper Yasmeen Bano told Reuters.

The fire broke out late on Saturday at the Gul Plaza Shopping Centre, a densely packed commercial complex. Firefighters managed to bring the massive blaze under control after about 36 hours, allowing rescue teams to enter the building to rescue those trapped inside.

However, officials warned that the building is now extremely unstable and could collapse at any moment.

Later on Monday, rescue chief operating officer Abid Jalal told news outlet Dawn that firefighting efforts had restarted, as flames continued to emerge on a portion of the mall.

Officials initially suspected the fire was caused by an electrical short circuit in one of the shops, but they later said the cause has yet to be confirmed, with a police investigation under way.

Karachi has a history of deadly fires, often blamed on poor safety standards and illegal construction. In November 2023, a fire at a shopping mall in the city killed 10 people and injured 22 others.

An inferno at a garments factory in Karachi in 2012 killed 260 people.