KARACHI: A three-storey building collapsed in the city’s Mominabad neighbourhood on Wednesday, injuring at least five people and trapping others under the rubble, police and rescue officials said.
Rescue workers pulled out two people in the initial operation, one of them in critical condition, and shifted them to a nearby hospital. Authorities warned that more individuals may still be buried beneath the debris as efforts to clear the site continue.
Witnesses reported an explosion inside the structure before the collapse, which triggered a fire. SSP West Tariq Mastoi confirmed that one person sustained burn injuries in the incident. All five injured victims have been moved to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for treatment.
Rescue officials said heavy machinery has been deployed to remove the debris, while ambulances and emergency personnel remain on site. Police have cordoned off the area to facilitate the operation.
The entire front portion of the building collapsed. The structure was originally a ground-plus-one building, with two additional rooms later added on top.
The incident, though tragic, is not an isolated case, as Karachi has seen a recurring pattern of building collapses over the past several years.
Last month, 27 people lost their lives in the tragic building collapse in Lyari’s Bhagdadi neighbourhood.
Twenty-six bodies — including nine women, 15 men, a ten-year-old boy and a one-and-a-half-year-old girl — were recovered from the rubble, while another person succumbed to their wounds during treatment.
The Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) revealed that the collapsed structure — which housed over 40 people in 20 apartments — was 30 years old and had been previously marked unsafe.
The incident also sheds light on the existing threat posed by buildings already declared unsafe and unfit for habitation by the SBCA. The number of such buildings stands at 578 in Karachi, with 456 of them being in the District South alone.
Other districts also face risk: Central (66), Keamari (23), Korangi (14), East (13), Malir (4), and West (2).
