Fire Ravages Karachi’s Gul Plaza, Killing at Least 23 as Response Is Criticized

A fire tore through the Gul Plaza shopping mall in downtown Karachi over the weekend, leaving at least 23 people dead and dozens more missing, officials said. The blaze burned through one of the city’s busiest wholesale marketplaces and reduced the building to a blackened shell. Rescue teams said the fire began spreading around 10 p.m.

on Saturday on the lower floors and burned for nearly 24 hours before firefighters brought it under control at about 10 p.m. on Sunday. Gul Plaza housed about 1,200 shops selling luggage, crockery, decorative items, plastic goods, toys, garments and household supplies; merchants said more than 1,000 small and medium shops were destroyed.

Shopkeepers and witnesses blamed a slow emergency response and obstructed access. Mujtaba Ali said firefighters’ ladders reached no higher than the fifth floor and that stairways were locked; another shopkeeper, Haji Sabir, said the market had been crowded for “wedding season.” Rescue workers reported melted wiring, twisted shutters and cellphones ringing under rubble, and they warned the exact toll could take days to establish because parts of the structure remained unstable and inaccessible.

Officials initially suspected an electrical short circuit but said the cause had not been confirmed. The fire revived long-standing concerns about fire safety in Karachi.

Key Topics

World, Gul Plaza, Karachi, Pakistan, Murad Ali Shah, Karachi Chamber