Firefighters in Pakistan have uncovered the remains of approximately 25 individuals from the rubble of a shopping mall blaze in Karachi, bringing the total number of fatalities to nearly 50.
The massive fire, the port city’s largest in over ten years, ignited late on Saturday and rapidly engulfed the expansive Gul Plaza shopping center. The complex is well-known for its 1,200 family-operated stores offering a variety of goods, including wedding attire, toys, and kitchenware.
Deputy Commissioner Javed Nabi Khoso informed the media, “We’ve discovered between 20 and 25 bodies, or what you might term remains.” These remains have been transported to a hospital for DNA testing to aid in identification.
With challenges in confirming identities, he noted that providing an exact death toll remains difficult, although it was reported as 29 on Tuesday.
A small gathering of mourners paid their respects by lighting candles near the site, some clutching photographs of those feared lost in the tragedy.
Firefighters continued to combat the blaze at the mall until Tuesday. By the time the flames were extinguished, Gul Plaza had been reduced to smoldering ruins and debris.
A total of 84 people had been registered missing, according to a state-run rescue service.
Police have said most of the missing are feared dead, meaning the toll could rise.
“It is a doomsday scenario,” shopkeeper Rehmat Khan said. He said around 18 to 20 people had been in the shop, including six staff, when the fire erupted in the mall. All of them were missing, he said.
DNA matching underway
At Civil Hospital Karachi, provincial health official Summaiya Syed said DNA samples from 51 families had been taken so far.
“We will hand over the bodies [remains] to the family, once DNA samples are matched,” she told journalists outside the hospital mortuary.
Muhammad Saleem said his family had decided not to take the remains home if his three missing relatives are identified.
“They are bringing only remains wrapped inside clothes,” he told the Agence France Presse (AFP) news agency.
“Our family members still believe that they are alive. They will go mad, if they see these remains. We will not show them to anyone and will bury them,” he said at the hospital.
Faraz Ali, whose father and 26-year-old brother were inside the mall, said he wants “the bodies to be recovered and handed over to their rightful families”.
“That is all so that the families may receive something, some comfort, some peace. At least let us see them one last time, in whatever condition they are, so that we may say our final goodbye,” Al told AFP.
Firefighters try to extinguish a fire breaking out at a shopping mall in Karachi on Sunday. Source: Getty / Xinhua News Agency
A government committee has launched an investigation, but the cause of the inferno was not immediately clear.
Fires are common in Karachi’s markets and factories, which are known for their poor infrastructure, but a blaze on such a scale is rare.
The blaze was Karachi’s most deadly since an industrial site went up in flames in 2012, killing more than 260 people.
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