Death toll rises to 18 in Pakistan building collapse

The death toll from a building collapse in the Pakistani city of Karachi has risen to 18. ©AFP/File Rizwan TABASSUM

The death toll from a building collapse in Karachi rose to at least 18 on Tuesday, with the final count expected to increase further, Pakistani officials said.

The five-storey residential building housing about 40 apartments collapsed Sunday in the Lyari neighbourhood of southern Karachi. Officials say about 30 people were home at the time. 

Authorities initially put the death toll at seven but on Tuesday, an additional 11 bodies were found in the debris. 

“So far, 18 bodies have been recovered,” Sharjeel Kharal, the police chief for Karachi’s western district, told AFP.

Muqaddas Haider, a senior police official, confirmed the toll and said six injured people had been rescued so far.

Roof and building collapses are common across Pakistan mainly because of poor safety standards and shoddy construction materials in the South Asian country of about 215 million people.

In March, more than two dozen people died in a different Karachi neighbourhood when their apartment building collapsed. 

Regulators in the port city have earmarked about 150 residential and office buildings as dangerous and told residents to leave.

“We had issued notices to the residents of this building too as it was not worthy of living in,” said Ali Mehdi, a senior official with the local building authority.

(AFP)