“My daughter is under the rubble,” Dev Raj told AFP at the scene in Karachi, where rescuers were still digging on Saturday through what remained of a multi-storey apartment block. At least 16 people had died.
The building came down at about 10:00 am on Friday in Lyari, a poor, crowded neighborhood that was once plagued by gang violence. Residents said they heard cracking sounds shortly before it fell. A rescue department official put the toll at “at least 16 people”: nine men, six women and a child. Summiaya Syed, a police surgeon for the provincial health department, gave the same death count on Saturday and said 13 people were injured. Another report put the number of injured at more than 20.
Around 100 residents, race against time
Local administration officials said about 100 people might have been living in the building, though no exact figure was available. Families waited near the site for word. Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui said the rescue operation was still under way. A district official estimated it could take another 10 to 12 hours and warned that survivors might be trapped and that the death toll could rise. Abid Jalaluddin Shaikh, who led the government’s 1122 rescue service at the scene, told AFP work was expected to run into Saturday evening.
Many of the victims are believed to be women, who are more likely to be home during the day.
Jumho Maheshwari, 70, had left for work early Friday while his whole family, six people in all, was in their first-floor apartment. “Nothing is left for me now,” he said. “My family is all trapped and all I can do is pray for their safe recovery.”
Maya Sham Jee said her brother’s family was also buried. “We are helpless and just looking at the rescue workers to bring our loved ones back safely,” she told AFP.
Warnings that went unheeded, or never arrived
Local media broadcast footage of the wreckage, and authorities had already declared the building unfit to live in. They said eviction notices went out to occupants over three years. Landlords and some residents told AFP they never received any.
One official told AFP: “We don’t want to impose our orders by force. We work in phases and send them notices to leave the building. They didn’t take the notices seriously.”
Imran Khaskheli, an owner and resident, rejected that. “Do you think we are out of our senses to stay in an unsafe building with our families?” he asked. He said he saw cracks in the pillars early on Friday and knocked on every door telling families to leave. Around 40 families lived in the building, he said, and many ignored him.
Shankar Kamho, 30, was out when his wife called to say the walls were cracking. He told her to get out. She went to warn neighbors first, and one woman answered that “this building will stand for at least 10 more years.” His wife took their daughter and left anyway. The building fell about 20 minutes later.
More than 50 buildings in the district have been declared unsafe, according to Khoso, and six were evacuated since Friday. Reports suggest Karachi may have 300 unsafe residential buildings.
Sources
- Building collapse in Pakistan kills 16, rescue work under way
- Search continues after Pakistan building collapse kills 16
Sources
- Building collapse in Pakistan kills 16, rescue work under way
- Search continues after Pakistan building collapse kills 16
