At least one person died after a multi-storey residential building collapsed in Karachi’s Korangi area, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre Director Dr. Seemin Jamali said. The victim was 15 years old, she added.
Five injured people have been brought to the hospital so far, all of whom are stable, she said.
The five-storey building was located near Rasheedia MaSindh Building Control Authority (SCBA) Korangi Director Asif Rizvi said the building was constructed illegally.
“The building was constructed on China-cutting land,” he said, adding that it had no map or approval.
This is the third such incident to have taken place in the metropolis this year. In June, a five-storey building collapsed in Karachi resulting in the deaths of at least 22 people.
In March, a building collapsed in the Gulbahar area, killing 27 people and injuring at least 17 others.
A month after the residential building collapsed in Lyari, the civic administration asked the provincial authorities to delist more than 50 ‘dangerous’ buildings from the list of structures listed under the Sindh Cultural Heritage Protection Act as protected heritage so that these could be demolished for public safety.sjid in Allah Wala Town, Korangi, police said.
Many residents remain trapped under the debris of the fallen building, police said, adding that a rescue operation has started.
A similar incident in Lyari in June took lives of at least 22 people.
The building had reportedly been declared dangerous by the SBCA’s technical team after an inspection survey on March 16. The SBCA had also issued a notice to the residents on March 18, directing them to vacate the building within 15 days.
The authority has declared at least 250 structures in the city ‘dangerous,’ with most of them located in the South district.
According to sources, the SBCA had also issued letters to the relevant agencies to cut off the utility connections when it wasn’t vacated, but in vain.