The death toll from a devastating fire at a shopping plaza in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi rose to 67 on Thursday, after police and hospital officials confirmed dozens more bodies had been recovered.
Police surgeon Dr. Summaiya Syed said rescue teams were still searching the severely damaged Gul Plaza in Karachi, where the blaze erupted on Saturday.
Most remains were discovered in fragments, making identification extremely difficult, but the deaths of 67 people have been confirmed, she said.
"We will hand over the bodies (remains) to the family, once DNA samples are matched," provincial health official Summaiya Syed said outside the Civil Hospital Karachi mortuary.
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," the 28-year-old said Wednesday.
A government committee has launched an investigation, but the cause of the inferno was not immediately clear.
Poor safety standards, rescue capacity
Karachi is no stranger to fires and other urban disasters, mainly because of lax regulations and non-implementation of safety standards.
Last year, some 1,700 fire incidents, mostly at small-scale, were recorded across Karachi- home to 20 million people, according to official statistics.
The latest fire, the deadliest after the 2012 factory fire in Karachi that killed 289 people, has raised questions about governance, poor urban planning, and lack of fire safety measures.
