KARACHI: Firefighters in Pakistan’s largest city were fighting to extinguish a massive blaze on Sunday that has killed six people and reduced parts of a shopping mall to rubble in Karachi’s historic downtown.
Videos showed flames rising from the building as firefighters labored through the night to stop the fire from spreading in the dense business district. Hundreds of people had gathered around the building, including distraught store owners whose businesses had turned to ash.
The fire erupted on Saturday night, with rescue services receiving a call at 10:38 p.m. (1738 GMT) reporting that ground floor shops at Gul Plaza were ablaze.
“When we arrived, the fire from the ground floor had spread to the upper floors, and almost the entire building was already engulfed in flames,” Rescue 1122 spokesperson Hassanul Haseeb Khan told Reuters.
Police surgeon Dr. Summaiya Syed said six bodies had been brought to Karachi’s Civil Hospital and 11 people who had been injured, adding that police were “invoking mass disaster protocols.”
Images of the mall’s interior revealed the charred remains of stores and a bright orange glow as flames continued to rise throughout the building.
Local media reported that parts of the building had started to collapse and rescue officials feared the whole structure could come down.
Massive fire kills 6 in Karachi, destroys shopping center
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Massive fire kills 6 in Karachi, destroys shopping center
- Six bodies had been brought to Karachi’s Civil Hospital and 11 people who had been injured
UK interior minister insists asylum reforms ‘fair’ amid blowback
- Mahmood argued in a speech that she was “restoring order and control” to Britain’s borders
- Amnesty International called the latest measure a “punitive blow”
LONDON: Britain’s interior minister doubled down Thursday on her tough stance on immigration despite criticism from charities and unease within the ruling Labour party that it is shedding left-wing voters.
Shabana Mahmood announced that asylum seekers who break the law or work illegally will be thrown out of government-funded accommodation and lose their support payments.
The policy forms part of a major overhaul of migration rules announced late last year and modelled on Denmark’s strict asylum system that aims to slash irregular migration to the UK.
Mahmood argued in a speech that she was “restoring order and control” to Britain’s borders and that her overhaul of the asylum was “firm but fair,” adding she would open new and safe legal routes.
But Amnesty International called the latest measure a “punitive blow” that “risks forcing people into destitution, homelessness and exploitation while they wait for their claims to be decided.”
Mahmood’s reforms are widely seen as an attempt to stem support for the hard-right Reform UK party, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage.
It has topped opinion polls for a year, in part because of the government’s failure to stop thousands of migrants from arriving in England from northern France on small boats.
But her stance has also been credited with contributing to Labour losing support to the progressive Green party, which won a local election in a traditional Labour heartland last week.
Mahmood said there was a middle path between Farage’s “nightmare pulling up the drawbridge and shutting out the world” and Green Party leader Zack Polanski’s “fairy tale of open borders.”
Her reform that makes refugee status temporary, including for accompanied children, came into force this week.
The status will be reviewed every 30 months, with refugees forced to return to their home countries once those are deemed safe.
They will also need to wait for 20 years, instead of the current five, before they can apply for permanent residency.
She also announced earlier this week that the government would stop issuing education visas to nationals from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan.
It said there had been a surge in asylum applications by students from those countries and almost 135,000 asylum seekers in total had entered the UK using legal routes since 2021.
