248 workers perish in Pakistan garment factory fire

A fire in a garment factory in Pakistan’s commercial capital of Karachi yesterday left 248 people dead and dozens injured in the biggest industrial accident in the country’s history, news reports said.

The death toll may rise further because there were over 2,000 people in the factory when the fire broke out, Bloomberg news agency quoted Roshan Ali Shaikh, district coordination officer, as saying.

Karachi, a city of 20 million people, is home to over 12,000 factories, many of which don’t comply with safety standards. Thousands of industrial workers are employed as casual labor and not insured for accidents.

The fire resulted in the most casualties in a single industrial incident in Pakistan’s history, Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research said.

“The bodies began coming in at 7:30 p.m. last evening and are still being brought in,” Tariq Kamal Ayubi, the head of the emergency room at Civil Hospital, told Bloogberg.

The incident occurred the same evening as a shoe factory was engulfed in flames in the eastern city of Lahore killing 25, Pakistani media reported.

The Lahore shoe factory was engulfed in flames after a power generator caught fire when workers tried to start it because of an electricity failure. nepalnews.com