Keystone-SDA
The assessment of the collapse of a residential building in Karachi climbed at least 16 dead on Saturday according to the authorities. They said that several expulsion opinions had been given for security reasons, which residents have denied.
(Keystone-ATS) The building had been declared dangerous, they told AFP. However, owners and residents have assured that they had never received these opinions.
The accident occurred Friday shortly after 10:00 am (07:00 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.
Summiaya Syed, a police doctor affiliated with the regional health department, communicated a new record of 16 dead and 13 injured on Saturday.
Research is continuing
“We do not want to impose our orders by force. We work by phases and send (to the inhabitants) of opinions telling them to leave the building. They did not take opinions seriously, “said AFP Javed Nabi Khoso, chief of the district where the accident occurred. According to him, the documents were distributed in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
“Do you think we are irresponsible to the point of staying in a building that is not sure with our families?” Reacted Imran Khaskheli, owner and resident, denying having received these papers.
He explained that he saw cracks on the pillars of the building early Friday, and enjoined families – 40 lived there according to him – to leave “immediately”. But many did not listen.
Abid Jalaluddin Shaikh, at the head of the emergency teams deployed on the spot, told AFP that research, which had already continued overnight, were probably going to continue in the evening.
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.
“The building cracked”
“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 said. 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,” she said.
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 bad constructions, its illegal enlargements, its aging infrastructure, its overpopulation and its lax application of the regulations in terms of construction.
