Rescue workers clearing Karachi inferno ruins, 63 missing feared dead
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The police said three of the mall's 16 exits were locked at the time of the fire.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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KARACHI – Firefighters were clearing the charred ruins of a Karachi mall on Jan 20
Police have said most of the missing are feared dead, and rescue workers were trying to locate bodies in the debris.
The city’s largest fire in over a decade started late on Jan 17 and quickly spread through the sprawling Gul Plaza shopping complex, famous for its 1,200 family-owned stores that sold wedding clothes, toys, crockery and much else.
Firefighters battled the flames that created an inferno inside the mall throughout the night and late into Jan 18 before bringing the blaze under control, although small fires continued to break out across the ruins.
Ms Kosar Bano, a woman standing near the site, said six of her family members had gone to the mall to shop for a wedding. The last time she heard from them, they said 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 said.
Much of the once-imposing structure, larger than a football field, was reduced to a pile of ash and debris scattered across the street as rescue workers searched for a growing list of missing people.
Mr Rizwan Ahmed from the Rescue 1122 group said on Jan 20 that 21 people were killed in the blaze while another 63 were still missing, nearly three days after the fire began.
Investigations promised
Relief workers dug through the rubble and brought out human remains in sacks before sending them for DNA testing.
Senior police official Syed Asad Raza told Reuters that 15 DNA samples had been collected by the night of Jan 19 to help identify the bodies.
There was also rising anger at the scene with people blaming a delayed rescue effort and jeering the city’s mayor when he showed up at the site nearly 24 hours after the fire began.
The government has said it will investigate the cause of the fire and the response.
Police also said that all but three of the mall’s 16 exits were locked when the fire began around the mall’s closing time.
Gul Plaza’s management did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
The blaze is Karachi’s biggest since an industrial site went up in flames in 2012, killing more than 260 people. A court ruled in 2020 that the disaster involved arson. REUTERS
