300 killed in Pakistan fires

About 300 people, including women and children, have been killed in a pair of devastating fires that engulfed a garment factory in Karachi and a shoe unit in Lahore in one of the worst industrial mishaps in Pakistan.

The fire in the multi-storey garment factory in Baldia Town area of Karachi broke out at 6 pm local time on Tuesday leaving 166 people dead, hours after a blaze at a shoe factory in Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, claimed 25 lives, officials said on Wednesday.

Rescue workers had pulled out 166 bodies from the Karachi factory till Wednesday afternoon and the toll could rise as several areas of the multi-storey building are yet to be cleared, Karachi Commissioner Roshan Ali Shaikh told reporters.

The Jinnah Hospital alone had received 88 bodies, Shaikh said.

Sagheer Ahmed, Health Minister of Sindh province, said 31 people were injured in the Karachi fire.