Friday, January 9, 2009

40 killed as fire engulfs slum area in Karachi


KARACHI: At least forty people including many minor children and women were burnt to death as blazes completely engulfed many shelties in North Karachi sector five, Chiipa sources said.

12 fire tenders reached on the scene and started taming the fire meanwhile, many other people were seriously burnt who were shifted to hospital, sources added.

No cause of fire eruption, in huts made of sticks, could be reported. Several people remained caught in the fire for long time.

Eidhi sources added that over two dozens completely burnt dead bodies including 15 children and women, were shifted to different hospitals. Emergency was declared in Abbasi Shaheed hospital, hospital sources informed Geo News.

Geo T.V correspondent Faheem Siddiqui reported, “The deadly blazes overwhelmed around 15 to 20 cabins and huts and completely burnt them down, as people were fast asleep therefore, they could not get themselves rescued after inferno outbreak.”

Faheem added that the shelties were in the slum kind of area and were covered from three sides while the only way out, entrance and exit of the place, caught fire that made it hard for the unfortunates to flee from the fire scene.

He also feared that as many as three-dozen people must have been burnt in the lethal inferno in slum.

Rescue 1122 workers, on the directives of Syed Mustafa Kamal, city nazim, also reached on the spot and partook in rescue efforts together with fire fighters, local people, town authorities, Chiipa and Edhi workers.

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