Six people have been killed after a massive fire tore through a shopping centre in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, authorities said, as firefighters battled through the night to contain the blaze.
The fire broke out late on Saturday at Gul Plaza, a multi-storey mall in the city’s historic downtown, quickly spreading from ground-floor shops to upper levels and reducing large parts of the building to rubble.
Police surgeon Summaiya Syed said six bodies had been brought to Karachi’s Civil Hospital, while 11 injured people were receiving treatment. She said police were "invoking mass disaster protocols".
Fire crews were still working on Sunday to extinguish the blaze in the densely packed commercial district, amid fears that the entire structure could collapse.
Rescue services said they received an emergency call at 22:38 local time (17:38 GMT) reporting a fire in ground-floor shops.
"When we arrived, the fire from the ground floor had spread to the upper floors, and almost the entire building was already engulfed in flames," Rescue 1122 spokesperson Hassanul Haseeb Khan told Reuters.
Videos shared on social media showed flames shooting from the building as firefighters attempted to stop the fire spreading to nearby properties.
Hundreds of people gathered at the scene, including distressed shop owners watching their businesses burn.
Images from inside the mall showed charred shop interiors and an orange glow as flames continued to rise.
Local media reported that parts of the building had already collapsed, while rescue officials warned that further structural failure remained possible.
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