Death toll rises to 67 in Karachi shopping plaza fire, officials say

Fire broke out at a shopping plaza in Karachi, Pakistan, and officials said Thursday that the death toll had risen to 67 after police and a hospital official confirmed additional remains were found.

Police surgeon Dr. Summaiya Syed said rescue teams were still searching the severely damaged Gul Plaza, where the blaze began on Saturday. She said most of the remains were discovered in fragments, making identification extremely difficult, but that the deaths of 67 people have been confirmed.

Asad Raza, a senior police official in Karachi, also confirmed the updated death toll. Authorities previously had confirmed 34 deaths.

Family members of people reported missing from the fire stayed near the destroyed plaza and the hospital even after providing their DNA for testing. Some tried to enter the building forcibly, criticizing the rescue efforts as too slow, and many relatives said more lives could have been saved if the government had acted more quickly.

Khair-un-Nisa, standing outside the building in tears, said rescue teams were not finding people fast enough. “They are not conducting the search properly,” she said, pointing toward the rescuers. She also said a relative who had left to go shopping has been missing since the blaze.

Saadia Saeed said her brother had been trapped inside the building since Saturday night, and that she did not know what had happened to him. “I am ready to go inside the plaza to look for him, but police are not allowing me,” she said.

Investigators said the blaze erupted at a time when most shop owners were either closing for the day or had already left. Since then, the Sindh provincial government said around 70 people were missing after the flames spread rapidly, fueled by goods such as cosmetics, clothing and plastic items.

The cause of the fire remained under investigation. Police indicated that a short circuit may have triggered the blaze.

Authorities deployed police around the plaza to prevent relatives from entering the unstable structure while rescuers continued their careful search. There was no immediate comment from authorities about the accusations they were too slow.

Karachi has a long history of deadly fires, often linked to poor safety standards, weak regulatory enforcement and illegal construction. In November 2023, a shopping mall fire killed 10 people and injured 22. One of Pakistan’s deadliest industrial disasters occurred in 2012, when a garment factory fire killed at least 260 people.