Shopping mall blaze kills at least 10 people in Pakistani city of Karachi

A fire tore through a shopping mall in the southwestern Pakistani city of Karachi, killing at least 10 people and injuring 22 others, police and local officials said on Saturday.

The multi-storey RJ Mall is in a commercial high-rise that also houses call centres and software firms. The building had no fire escape.

The fire department dispatched eight fire trucks to the scene after being alerted at 6:30am local time. Chief fire officer, Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan, said the fourth floor of the building was the most affected.

Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the fire had been extinguished and a cooling process was underway.

Edhi Trust volunteers carry a victim's body after fire broke out at a shopping mall. AP

He said that five of the 22 injured were in critical condition. "We are trying our best to do whatever it takes to save their lives and to provide them with whatever treatment that is required for saving their lives,” Siddiqui, who was at the scene, told reporters. The cause of the fire was not immediately clear.

More than 60 people were inside the mall when the fire broke out on the fourth floor of the six-storey building in the southern port city.

"Our rescue workers have taken 11 dead bodies to hospitals so far," said Shahid Hussain, a spokesman for the Chippa welfare organisation, which runs a rescue service. He said 35 people were injured, with seven of them in serious condition. "At least 40 people have been rescued," he added.

People gather in front of a commercial high-rise building after the fire in Karachi. AP

Shabbir Ali, a provincial health ministry spokesperson confirmed the death toll and number of injured persons. Hussain said the fire was started by a generator short circuit and spread to engulf two floors of the building. Poor safety laws and building codes as well as lax enforcement mean fires in large buildings are frequent in Pakistan.

Karachi is the capital of southern Sindh province, where such incidents are common. Earlier this year in April, a fire tore through a garment factory killing four firefighters. The flames ripped through the building, eventually causing it to collapse.

In August 2021, at least 10 people were killed in a fire at a chemical factory in the same city. In the deadliest such incident, 260 people were killed after being trapped inside a garment factory when a fire broke out.