Gas Blast Leaves Over Dozen Dead in Southern Pakistan
The blast, which struck late Wednesday, leveled the structure in the densely packed Soldier Bazaar district of the city's historic old quarter, burying residents under mountains of rubble. Women and children were among those killed, authorities said.
Rescue teams worked through the night in a frantic search for survivors. At least 13 bodies and 18 injured individuals were rushed to Civil Hospital Karachi, the city's largest public medical facility. Dr. Mohammad Sabir Memon, head of the hospital's trauma center, told local daily Dawn that rescue efforts continued through the night.
Footage distributed by emergency responders captured the grim reality on the ground — workers picking through wreckage with their bare hands while grief-stricken residents looked on from the periphery.
The tragedy is the latest in a grim pattern plaguing Pakistan's urban centers. Building collapses occur with alarming regularity across the country, driven by chronically lax safety enforcement and the pervasive use of substandard construction materials.
Karachi, home to more than 20 million people, is particularly vulnerable — a sprawling metropolis buckling under illegal construction extensions, crumbling infrastructure, dangerous overcrowding, and near-absent regulatory oversight.
The disaster follows closely on the heels of the Gul Plaza inferno last month, a devastating fire that claimed more than 70 lives — underscoring the mounting human cost of the city's deepening infrastructure crisis.
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