By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: Rescue operations ended on Sunday evening in Karachi after a five-storey residential building collapsed earlier this week in the city’s crowded Lyari neighborhood, killing 27 people and exposing the city’s persistent struggle with unsafe housing.
On Friday morning, around 10:30am, the ground shook in Karachi, not from an earthquake, but from the collapse of Fotan Mansion, a known death trap in Baghdadi area. By Sunday evening, when three-day search operations ended, nine women, 15 men, and three children, including a one-year-old infant, were dead.
“The rescue operation was completed on Sunday evening,” Rescue-1122 spokesperson Hassaanul Haseeb Khan told reporters. “No more human casualties have been found; thus, the total death toll stands at 27 people, whose bodies were earlier recovered and transported to Civil Hospital Karachi.”
Ten of the injured were treated and released, while one woman, Sanatia, 30, remains hospitalised.
Rescue-1122 South In-Charge Hameer Wahid said 95% of the debris was cleared, with no more victims believed trapped. “No families are waiting for missing persons”
The cause of the collapse is still under investigation, but Khan pointed to the building’s poor condition. “A day before the collapse, residents felt a ‘shock’. It can be said now that it was not an earthquake, but the building’s structure being shaken or dislocated,” he said. “There were 12 families, though some families had already left the building after the tremors.”
Fotan Mansion had been flagged as dangerous by the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) since 2012. Eviction notices were issued, utility services were ordered cut, and loudspeaker warnings were broadcast, most recently on June 29 after rains weakened its frame.
“Before the recent rains, public announcements were also made in the area, but unfortunately, no one was willing to vacate,” a local official said. Residents estimated that around 40 people, many from the low-income Hindu minority community, were inside when it crumbled.
The disaster exposes Karachi’s deadly housing crisis, where poverty forced residents to stay despite the risk. The collapse left survivors reeling. Jumho Maheshwari, 70, lost his entire family of six while he was at work. “Nothing is left for me now,” he said, his voice breaking. “All I can do is pray.”
Shankar Kamho, 30, saved his wife and daughter after a frantic call about cracking walls, but others weren’t so lucky, one neighbor laughed off the danger just 20 minutes before the building fell.
Rescue efforts faced significant hurdles. Narrow streets prevented the use of heavy machinery like cranes, while relatives refusing to leave the site added pressure. “We faced immense pressure from the relatives,” Khan said, noting a lack of coordination among rescue groups and even a fight between staffers from two private organizations.
Still, over 100 personnel worked in shifts over three days, using advanced tools like life detectors, equipment deployed in Turkey’s recent earthquake, to save lives. “Without this equipment, the use of heavy machinery might have caused further injury,” Khan said.
This isn’t Karachi’s first collapse. Pakistan’s financial hub, home to 23 million people, is buckling under a housing shortage worsened by rapid urbanisation. Safe, affordable homes are rare, and aging buildings like Fotan Mansion, often illegally modified, dot neglected neighborhoods.
The city has seen 27 die in Rizvia Society in 2020 when five-storey building collapsed, another in Gulbahar claimed 16 lives the next month, a three-storey structure in Malir took four in June 2021, and a collapse in Korangi last August left at least three dead.
Speaking after leading the Ashura procession on Sunday, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah detailed the government’s actions.
“Immediate rescue efforts were launched to save any survivors trapped under the rubble,” he said, confirming that recovered bodies had been handed over to families.
He promised a thorough inquiry, with committees already formed, and revealed that over 480 buildings in old city areas, mostly in District South, are deemed dangerous.
“The government plans to assist affected residents in finding alternative housing,” Shah said. He noted that Fotan Mansion was built just months ago without proper approval, vowing “strict punishment” for those responsible for unauthorized construction.
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