Rescue teams were in the final stages of clearing debris from a collapsed five-storey building in Karachi, Pakistan’s sprawling megacity, where 27 people lost their lives, officials said on Sunday.
Residents reported hearing cracking sounds shortly before the apartment block crumbled around 10 a.m. on Friday in Lyari, one of Karachi’s poorest neighbourhoods, formerly notorious for gang violence and considered among the most dangerous areas in Pakistan.
“Most of the debris has been removed,” Hassaan Khan, spokesperson for the government rescue service 1122, told AFP, confirming the death toll at 27 as of Sunday morning. He added that the rescue operation was expected to conclude by afternoon.
Authorities said the building had been declared unsafe, and eviction notices were issued to occupants between 2022 and 2024. However, some landlords and residents told AFP they never received these notices.
“My daughter is still under the rubble,” said 54-year-old Dev Raj at the scene on Saturday. “She was my beloved daughter, very sensitive, and she was married just six months ago. Now she’s trapped beneath the debris.”
Building collapses are common across Pakistan, largely due to poor safety standards and the use of substandard construction materials in the country of over 240 million people.
Karachi, home to more than 20 million residents, is particularly plagued by unsafe construction practices, illegal building extensions, aging infrastructure, overcrowding, and lax enforcement of building regulations.
