US EditionDeath toll in Pakistan shopping plaza fire rises to 67, officials say
Authorities continue DNA analysis to identify victims after the fire at Karachi's Gul Plaza killed 67 and left over 80 missing, officials said.
- On Thursday, officials confirmed the death toll rose to 67 after police and hospital officials found dozens of remains at Gul Plaza, shopping plaza in Karachi.
- As shops were closing, investigators found the blaze spread rapidly through cosmetics, clothing and plastic household items, trapping around 70 people after most shop owners had left on Saturday.
- Authorities earlier reported 34 previously confirmed deaths, and police and hospital officials said most remains were found in fragments, complicating identification.
- Rescue teams are still searching the severely damaged Gul Plaza as recovery operations continue, while police say the cause remains under investigation with a suspected short circuit.
- Karachi has long faced deadly fires often linked to poor safety standards and weak regulatory enforcement, including a November 2023 shopping mall fire killing 10 and a 2012 garment factory fire killing at least 260.
29 Articles
29 Articles
The interminable wait between life and death at Gul Plaza in Karachi
It wasn’t so much about the announcement or the declaration of death, muttered Qaiser, but the hours, minutes and seconds between the knowing and the not knowing — the brief yet interminable time of feeling suspended. On Tuesday, the elderly, bespectacled man entered his fourth day of waiting outside what used to be Gul Plaza. Patches of dust, soot and perspiration stained his white shalwar kameez. His eyes drifted everywhere all at once, always…
Since the fire that started on Saturday night in one of the city's largest shopping malls, the results are only rising. Research continues this Friday.
Fire broke out last Saturday in the Gul Plaza, one of Karachi's busiest shopping centres with its three floors and 1,200 stores. The causes of the disaster remain unknown.
After the fire in a shopping mall in the Pakistani city of Karachi, the number of deaths has risen to more than 60.
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