Shopping centre blaze in Pakistan kills at least 10 and injures 22 others

A fire has torn through a shopping centre in the south-western Pakistani city of Karachi, killing at least 10 people and injuring 22 others, police and local officials said.

The multi-storey RJ Mall is in a commercial high-rise building that also houses call centres and software firms.

The fire department dispatched eight trucks to the scene after being alerted at 6.30am local time. Chief fire officer Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan said the fourth floor of the building was the most affected.

Karachi mayor Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the fire had been extinguished and a cooling process was under way.

He said that five of the 22 injured were in a critical condition.

“We are trying our best to do whatever it takes to save their lives and to provide them with whatever treatment that is required for saving their lives,” Mr Siddiqui, who was at the scene, told reporters.

The cause of the fire was not immediately clear.

Karachi is the capital of the southern province of Sindh, where such incidents are common.

Earlier this year in April, a fire tore through a garment factory killing four firefighters. The flames ripped through the building, eventually causing it to collapse.

In August 2021, at least 10 people were killed in a fire at a chemical factory in the same city. In the deadliest such incident, 260 people were killed after being trapped inside a garment factory when a fire broke out.