In Karachi, Pakistani emergency responders have uncovered the remains of approximately 25 individuals from the rubble of a shopping center blaze, raising the overall number of fatalities to nearly 50.

The fire, the most significant in the port city in over ten years, erupted late on Saturday and rapidly engulfed the extensive Gul Plaza shopping center, known for its 1,200 family-run businesses offering wedding apparel, toys, kitchenware, and various other products.

“We’ve recovered between 20 and 25 bodies, or what remains of them,” deputy commissioner Javed Nabi Khoso informed the press. He noted that these remains were transported to a hospital for DNA analysis to aid in identification.

Due to the challenges in recognizing the victims, Khoso stated that providing an exact death toll update was difficult, with the count previously at 29 on Tuesday.

In memory of those lost, a small group gathered near the site, lighting candles and holding photos of the presumed victims, paying their respects.

Firefighters had been battling the inferno inside the mall until Tuesday. By the time it was brought under control, Gul Plaza was reduced to a pile of ash and debris.

A total of 84 people had been registered missing, according to a state-run rescue service.

Police have said most of the missing are feared dead, meaning the toll could rise.

“It is a doomsday scenario,” shopkeeper Rehmat Khan said. He said around 18 to 20 people had been in the shop, including six staff, when the fire erupted in the mall. All of them were missing, he said.

DNA matching underway

At Civil Hospital Karachi, provincial health official Summaiya Syed said DNA samples from 51 families had been taken so far.

“We will hand over the bodies [remains] to the family, once DNA samples are matched,” she told journalists outside the hospital mortuary.

Muhammad Saleem said his family had decided not to take the remains home if his three missing relatives are identified.

“They are bringing only remains wrapped inside clothes,” he told the Agence France Presse (AFP) news agency.

“Our family members still believe that they are alive. They will go mad, if they see these remains. We will not show them to anyone and will bury them,” he said at the hospital.

Faraz Ali, whose father and 26-year-old brother were inside the mall, said he wants “the bodies to be recovered and handed over to their rightful families”.

“That is all so that the families may receive something, some comfort, some peace. At least let us see them one last time, in whatever condition they are, so that we may say our final goodbye,” Al told AFP.

Firefighters try to extinguish a fire breaking out at a shopping mall in Karachi on Sunday. Source: Getty / Xinhua News Agency

A government committee has launched an investigation, but the cause of the inferno was not immediately clear.

Fires are common in Karachi’s markets and factories, which are known for their poor infrastructure, but a blaze on such a scale is rare.

The blaze was Karachi’s most deadly since an industrial site went up in flames in 2012, killing more than 260 people.

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