By Ariba Shahid
KARACHI, Jan 19 (Reuters) – When smoke began seeping from ducts at the sprawling Gul Plaza shopping complex in Karachi late on Saturday, those inside thought a small fire had broken out in a corner of the mall.
But the flames spread rapidly, leaping through a structure that housed 1,200 stores in Karachi’s historic centre.
“It engulfed the whole mall in front of our eyes,” shopowner Shahbaz Iqbal, 27, told Reuters on Monday, after the blaze was largely extinguished following a 24-hour firefight. Authorities said more than 60 people were still missing and 21 have been killed.
“We thought it was a small fire. No one ever thought it would be this bad.”
Iqbal and his co-workers ran upstairs and out of the mall from one of the basement exits, but those coming from the upper floors weren’t as lucky. With the facility due to close soon, most of the mall’s gates were locked.
Senior police official Syed Asad Raza told Reuters that all but three of the mall’s 16 exits were locked.
“When I went in (to the building), I saw the locks,” said rescue worker Aqeel, who declined to share his whole name as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
Gul Plaza’s management did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
‘ALL MY PEOPLE’
As rescue workers dug through mounds of debris, human remains were pulled out of the building in white cotton sheets turned into makeshift sacks.
Shafi Ahmed, who owned a store in the basement, stood holding his hands together in prayer.
When asked if anyone he knew was inside, he said five of his friends were left in the mall.
“These are all our people. These are all my people. These are our people,” he said, breaking down in tears.
Police struggled to hold back grieving families and shopowners who said they had lost everything.
At one point, officials discovered a drawer full of money, causing a fight to break out among shopowners claiming it was theirs.
RISING ANGER
Hundreds of protesters gathered around the smouldering remains of the building on Monday calling for accountability from the authorities.
Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has promised an investigation into the fire and response time, while Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab, who arrived on the scene nearly 24 hours after the fire broke out, was met with jeers from the angry crowd.
Roads still under construction outside Gul Plaza were inundated with water after the firefight. Rescue officials sat in a tent outside the building, noting down the names of the missing.
Razia, 40, who goes by one name, said six of her relatives worked in the building.
“One of them jumped out with two of his friends. One of the friends broke his legs and the other died on the spot,” she said, describing the account from the relative, her nephew.
Another of her family members, a flower shop worker named Ibrar, did not make it out. He broke down a door to help others escape, “but he is still stuck … no one has heard from him since Saturday,” Razia said.
(Reporting by Ariba Shahid; Writing by Saad Sayeed; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
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