Pakistan building collapse site cleared with 27 dead

Residents look at the debris of a collapsed building, from their homes in Karachi on July 5, 2025. [AFP]

Pakistan rescuers have concluded a three day-long rescue operation, recovering 27 bodies from a building that collapsed in the mega port city of Karachi, officials said on Monday.

Residents reported hearing cracking sounds shortly before the apartment block crumbled around 10:00 am on Friday in Karachi's impoverished Lyari neighbourhood, which was once plagued by gang violence and considered one of the most dangerous areas in Pakistan.

"All the bodies trapped under the debris have been recovered, so the search operation has been called off," the top government official in the district, Javed Nabi Khoso, told AFP.

"The total death toll stands at 27 people."

Authorities said the building had been declared unsafe and eviction notices were sent to occupants between 2022 and 2024, but landlords and some residents told AFP they had not received them.

Twenty of the victims were Hindus, according to Sundeep Maheshewari, an activist in the minority community.

"Most of the families are very poor," he told AFP.

Government official Khoso said that five out of more than 50 more dangerous buildings in his district have been evacuated since Saturday.

"The operation has been initiated and will continue until all such buildings are evacuated," he said.

Roof and building collapses are common across Pakistan, mainly because of poor safety standards and shoddy construction materials in the South Asian country of more than 240 million people.

But Karachi, home to more than 20 million, is especially notorious for poor construction, illegal extensions, ageing infrastructure, overcrowding, and lax enforcement of building regulations.