Pakistan: at least 14 dead in the collapse of a building

New lifeless bodies have been extracted from the rubble from a residential building that collapsed in Karachi, taking stock of the drama at least 14 dead on Saturday, according to the authorities. The accident occurred Friday shortly after 10:00 am (7:00 am in Switzerland) in the poor district of Lyari, formerly prey to the violence of gangs and considered one of the most dangerous places in Pakistan.

The five -story building was “dilapidated”, Saad Edhi told the EDHI Foundation, which participates in rescue operations alongside Karachi, megalopolis of some 20 million souls. Abid Jalaluddin Shaikh, at the head of the emergency teams deployed on the spot, told AFP that research had continued all night “without interruption”. “It could take still 12 hours,” he added.

Photos of AFP show the completely destroyed building, while help and construction machinery search its ruins. On these images, we can see bodies of victims evacuated from civilians while other residents try to recover their belongings from the debris. On Saturday morning, the results were 14 people killed and 13 injured, Summiaya Syed, a police official, said at Karachi hospital, said to be transferred. The day before, Arif Aziz, a senior authority official, told AFP that the building had a hundred residents.

Shankar Kamho, a resident of this building who was absent at the time of his collapse, said that twenty families were staying there. “I had a call from my wife saying that the building was cracking and I told her to go out immediately,” the 30 -year -old man said on Friday. “She went to warn the neighbors but a woman said to her:” This building will last at least ten years. ” Despite everything, my wife took our daughter and came out. Twenty minutes later, the building collapsed. ”

The six members of the family of Jumho Maheshwari, 70, were in his apartment on the ground floor when he went out to go to work. “My whole family is buried and all I can do is prayed to find it alive,” he was worried on Friday. Another resident, Maya Sham Jee, explained that her brother’s family was also under the rubble: “We are helpless, we can just hope that the rescuers bring us our loved ones alive.”

In June 2020, at least 18 people lost their lives when a 40 apartments building collapsed in the same area. The collapses of roofs and buildings are frequent in Pakistan, a country with more than 240 million inhabitants, mainly due to the defaulting safety standards and the poor quality of building materials. The city of Karachi is particularly known for its poor condition, its illegal enlargements, its aging infrastructure, its overcrowding and its lax application of construction regulations.