Pakistan: Several killed in Karachi building collapse

At least seven people have been reported dead Friday after a 5-story building in Karachi's Lyari neighborhood collapsed. Rescuers continue to search for survivors.

Several people were killed after a building collapsed in the Pakistani port city of Karachi on Friday morning.

Rescuers continued to search for survivors in the rubble of the collapsed building, which was located in Lyari, one of the city's poorest neighborhoods .

Karachi — a bustling metropolis with a population of over 20 million — is the capital of southern Sindh province and serves as Pakistan's economic hub.

What else do we know about the Lyari building collapse?

The city's mayor confirmed that seven people had been killed in the incident and that eight more had been rescued by emergency services workers.

A senior police officer at the scene said that as many as 100 people had been living in the building before it came crashing down. Authorities suspect that at least 8 or 10 more people may still be trapped inside.

A doctor at Karachi's Bezanir Bhutto Trauma Center told Pakistani daily Dawn that it had registered nine fatalities from the incident, including one person who died during treatment.

Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori said in a post on the platform X that he was "deeply saddened" by the news, adding that he had directed rescue services to take "immediate and effective action."

Pakistani's president, Asif Ali Zardari, ordered an urgent probe into the causes of the incident and called for effective measures to be taken to prevent similar events in the future, according to a statement by his Pakistan People's Party (PPP).

Rescuers struggle to access site

Rescuers have had difficulty accessing the site with heavy equipment due to the narrow alleyways leading to it. Police on the scene beat resident with truncheons to clear the way.

The head of Sindh province's rescue service, Abid Jalaluddin Shaikh, told Dawn that rescuers were facing an "unruly crowd, various road blockades and mobile network [issues]."

Building collapses are common in Pakistan, where construction laws are lax and oversight laxer still.

In June 2020, an apartment building collapsed in Karachi, killing 22 people.

Edited by: Saim Dušan Inayatullah