The death toll from the devastating fire that engulfed a shopping complex in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi has risen to about 50, after rescue teams recovered up to 25 additional bodies from the charred wreckage on Wednesday.
The inferno—described by authorities as Karachi’s deadliest fire in more than a decade—broke out late Saturday at the Gul Plaza shopping mall and quickly spread through the multi-storey structure. The complex housed nearly 1,200 family-run shops selling wedding attire, toys, household goods and other merchandise.
Confirming the grim discovery, Deputy Commissioner Javed Nabi Khoso told journalists that between 20 and 25 bodies, many reduced to remains, were found during the latest recovery operation.
“We have found 20 to 25 dead bodies, or what you may call remains,” Khoso said, adding that the bodies had been transported to hospital facilities for DNA testing to assist with identification.
He explained that the severe condition of the remains has made it difficult to determine an exact casualty figure. As of Tuesday, the official death toll stood at 29.
At the scene, grieving relatives and friends gathered near the blackened ruins of the mall, lighting candles and holding photographs of loved ones believed to have been trapped inside when the fire erupted.
Firefighters battled the raging blaze for several days before finally bringing it under control on Tuesday. By then, Gul Plaza had been completely gutted, leaving behind a landscape of rubble and ash.
A state-run rescue service reported that at least 84 people remain missing, while police said most of those unaccounted for are feared dead—raising concerns that the death toll could rise further.
One affected shop owner, Rehmat Khan, described the devastation after visiting the site of his destroyed business.
“It is a doomsday scenario,” he said, revealing that between 18 and 20 people, including six of his employees, were inside his shop when the fire broke out. None of them has been accounted for.
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