At least 15 labourers killed in fire at Pak chemical factory

Karachi: At least 15 labourers were killed after a massive fire broke out in a chemical factory in Pakistan's commercial capital of Karachi on Friday, police said.

The factory, located in the populated Korangi industrial area, caught fire when around 26 workers were present in the building, Korangi SSP Shah Jehan said, adding that rescue operations were on to find the other workers.

Fire brigade officials said that the incident happened when the blaze started in a drum of chemical used to manufacture various items and spread across the factory, Geo TV reported.

Faisal Edhi, a rescue official, said 15 bodies have been taken out from the fire site.

It is a chemical factory and apparently the fire broke out due to some short circuit but we are assisting in locating all the workers, he said.

Jehan said there were still some people trapped inside the building and might have died.

We were inside the building and we had started working when the fire broke out and spread quickly. We shouted for help but no one heard us, Shahid, a worker at the factory, was quoted as saying by Geo TV.

He said that the dead included four brothers who worked at the factory.

Two fire fighters were injured while trying to put out the flames, the report said.

Karachi Administrator Murtaza Wahab said that the fire department was alerted of the blaze at 10:09 am and departed a minute later, rejecting reports that the fire brigade arrived late to extinguish the fire.

He confirmed that the fire has been extinguished and cooling efforts were under way, citing suffocation as the cause of death of most of

the victims.