The devastating fire that tore through a shopping mall in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, over the weekend has killed at least 61 people, including 30 who died in a single shop on the mezzanine floor of the building, authorities said. The fire at Gul Shopping Plaza was Karachi’s biggest fire in more than a decade, consuming a three-storey commercial building that housed over 1,200 shops.
It took nearly 36 hours to fully extinguish the blaze that started on January 17 in the basement of a shopping complex located in the city’s Saddar area. The search and rescue efforts are still underway, with officials fearing that the number of deaths might climb over 100.
Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab has announced that the government of Sindh, the province where Karachi is located, will provide compensation of 10 million rupees ($35,000) for each family that has lost a loved one in the tragedy.
Authorities said the rescue efforts were severely hampered due to debris and poor ventilation from the part of the building that collapsed due to the blaze. According to the chief fire officer at the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, Humayun Khan, it can take another 10-15 days before rescue operations to locate the missing persons are completed.
