Karachi, March 23 A fire has erupted again at the Gul Plaza shopping centre in Karachi, Pakistan, with rescue teams discovering a man in the basement of the damaged building.
The shopping centre was largely destroyed after a major fire in January that claimed at least 80 lives.
Fire official Humayun Khan said that they received information about a fire in the sealed building on Sunday evening.
"It was a fire originating from the basement floor, and it was spreading rapidly. It took five fire engines to control and extinguish it," he said.
Khan said when rescue teams entered the basement on Monday morning, they found an unconscious man inside a burned shop.
The unidentified man was taken to a hospital, and his condition is reported to be critical.
Police official Sarmad Bhatti said the man appeared to be an addict and may have gone into the basement in search of something to sell. He claimed that the man may have started the fire, causing him to lose consciousness.
Bhatti said that the investigation into how the man entered the building is ongoing, as the building has been sealed off with security since the January fire.
The blaze in January took nearly three days to be controlled, and rescue teams spent a week searching for bodies inside the building.
