At least 12 people were killed and 75 others injured when a huge fire erupted at Karachi's Regent Plaza hotel early Monday, police and a doctor said.

Some people used sheets to climb down the building. — DawnNews

The blaze broke out in the kitchen located at the ground floor of the four-star hotel located on the city's Shahrah-i-Faisal, and swept through the building, trapping scores of hotel guests in their rooms.

Three trucks from the fire brigade reached the site and started an operation to rescue the guests.

The firefighters were able to contain the blaze after three hours, with 11 people having been killed, said a press release issued by the Saddar Police Station.

No fire exits?

Karachi mayor Waseem Akhtar speaking to reporters outside the hotel said the cause of the fire could not be immediately ascertained.

He said the hotel had "no fire exits or fire alarms".

Karachi mayor talks to reporters.

“We have received 11 dead bodies and 75 injured,” Dr Seemin Jamali, head of the emergency services at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, told AFP.

Amongst the injured were people who had fractured bones after jumping from hotel windows to escape, others had been hurt by shattered glass and many were treated for smoke inhalation, she said.

She said six men, including three doctors and the hotel's front desk manager, and five women were among the dead. A couple from Punjab, attending a wedding in the metropolis were also among the dead. Three foreigners affected by the fire are in a stable condition, said Jamali.

Rescue officials recovered another body from the washroom of a room on the second floor on Monday evening.

Guests gather outside Regent Plaza Hotel following the fire. — AFP

Most of the country's buildings don't meet safety standards to avoid such mishaps.

TV footage of the incident showed guests at the hotel using bedsheets to climb down from windows.

A man standing at a balcony kept waving for help but the hotel didn't have any means to reach him, a survivor, Hamid Ali, told a local television channel. He said the guests were sleeping when the fire broke out.

“Trapped people showed courage and made ropes of bed sheets and came out one by one, many people have been injured,” hotel guest Saeed ur Rehman, himself wounded in the fire, told AFP.

Guests were left helpless, he said, for hours.

'Fire fighting equipment and exits present'

Fire fighting equipment is present in the hotel according to law and every floor has three emergency exits, claimed the management of Regent Plaza hotel in a statement released.

"The same emergency exits were used by the hotel staff to evacuate more than 500 people, and a member of the hotel staff lost his life during while performing his duty," added the statement.

The hotel management also asked the chief minister and the prime minister to conduct an inquiry regarding the lack of proper equipment available with the fire fighting forces.

'Most people died due to suffocation'

Chief Fire Officer Tehseen Siddiqui told DawnNews that although the blaze was not very intense and was contained "quite early", the smoke kept circulating inside because the air conditioning system stayed on.

"Despite our requests, no one from the hotel management was there who could turn off the air conditioning."

The aftermath of the fire.— DawnNews

Siddiqui said there was no exhaust inside and due to this "most people suffocated to death".

"No fire exits had been marked inside the hotel... the smoke detectors are there but they aren't functioning. The [hotel's] fire alarm also did not go off," said the fire chief.

He further said that the hotel has now been evacuated completely.

Faisal Edhi of the Edhi Foundation said no one from the hotel management was there to guide rescue workers inside the hotel which was dark.

He said the rescue operation was difficult because people were communicating with trapped guests in Urdu, which some foreigners did not understand.

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has ordered the civil defence department to inspect and present a report investigating whether the hotel had the arrangements to extinguish the fire.

UBL players among injured

Cricket players from the United Bank Limited (UBL) team were among those injured in the blaze.

The team, which was staying at the fourth floor of the hotel, woke up to the fire, said Nadeem Khan, head of the UBL Sports Department.

He said bowler Yasim Murtaza's ankle was fractured as he jumped from the second floor to save his life and the player is now recovering at a hospital. Karamat Ali was also injured.

International cricketer Sohaib Maqsood was also staying at the hotel but remained safe in the fire, said Nadeem, adding that Maqsood also helped rescue people. He said the UBL Quaid-i-Azam trophy match against Habib Bank Limited would be postponed today.

Sixteen crew members of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) also sustained injuries in the fire, spokesman Danyal Gilani said. He said most of the crew members have been discharged from hospital while some are still undergoing treatment.

Foreigners wait for help. — AFP

Guests gather outside the Regent Plaza hotel following the fire. — AFP

Firefighters look from a room of Regent Plaza after the fire. — AFP

Guests gather outside Regent Plaza. — AFP

Volunteers help a foreigner in evacuating after the fire. — AFP

A guest talks on her mobile phone outside the hotel. — AFP

Guests gathered outside Regent Plaza following the fire. — AFP

People mourn the death of their family member following the fire.— AP

Injured guests walk outside Regent Plaza hotel. — AFP

Guests are gathered outside the hotel. — AFP</s>The fire, which broke out at 2.45 a.m., has been contained and fire department officials were at the scene investigating the situation, Mohammad Yaseen of the Saddar Fire Station told CNN.

Dr Seemi Jamali, who heads the Emergency Room at Jinnah Hospital, close to the hotel, said the deaths had been caused by suffocation and all injuries were linked to respiratory problems.

The Regent Plaza Hotel is a prominent landmark in Karachi and has been one of the city's most popular hotels since the 1970s.

Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar, who was at the scene, told a press conference on Monday no senior employees from the hotel had been present at the scene.

"There was no fire exit for people to escape from and no fire alarms were working," he said. Pakistani fire fighters look from a room of Regent Plaza Hotel following a fire in the Pakistan's port city of Karachi on December 5. In a statement, Pakistan International Airlines said 16 cabin crew members, who had been staying at the hotel, suffered injuries but most had been discharged from hospital by noon on Monday. Karachi Fire Chief Tahseen Siddiqui told CNN the fire was on the ground floor while the deaths had been on the upper floors of the hotel. "None of their smoke detectors worked, there was no sprinkler system, this is the responsibility of the hotel ... people were completely unaware of the problem, (they) suffocated in their sleep," he said. 'Precious lives could have been saved' In a series of tweets posted late on Monday, the Regent Plaza Hotel's official Twitter account offered their condolences to the victims' families and blamed the severity of the fire on Karachi's fire department. Had the fire brigade started their operation on time, many precious lives could have been saved today. #RegentPlaza #Karachi #FireIncident — Regent Plaza Hotel (@RegentplazaKhi) December 5, 2016 "Fire spread quickly while the duty manager waited for fire brigade to arrive, which unfortunately took more than one hour to arrive," the tweet from the hotel's official account said. "Had the fire brigade started their operation on time, many precious lives could have been saved today." The tweets also defended the hotel against allegations that they had not had emergency exits or fire alarms installed. All necessary emergency aid and equipment was present inside the facility with proper instructions#RegentPlaza #Karachi #FireIncident pic.twitter.com/y27g7vScNZ — Regent Plaza Hotel (@RegentplazaKhi) December 5, 2016 "All necessary emergency aid and equipment was present inside the facility with the proper instructions," the official account said, accompanied by pictures of charred fire equipment and alarms. But Fire Chief Siddiqui said there had only been a slight delay for fire crews, less than an hour, due to barricades blocking the entrance to the hotel.</s>The fire, which broke out at 2.45 a.m., has been contained and fire department officials are at the scene investigating the situation, Mohammad Yaseen of the Saddar Fire Station told CNN.

Dr Seemi Jamali, who heads the Emergency Room at Jinnah Hospital, close to the hotel, said the deaths had been caused by suffocation and all injuries were linked to respiratory problems.

The Regent Plaza Hotel is a prominent landmark in Karachi and has been one of the city's most popular hotels since the 1970s.

Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar, who was at the scene, told a press conference on Monday no senior employees from the hotel had been present at the scene.

"There was no fire exit for people to escape from and no fire alarms were working," he said. Pakistani fire fighters look from a room of Regent Plaza Hotel following a fire in the Pakistan's port city of Karachi on December 5. In a statement, Pakistan International Airlines said 16 cabin crew members, who had been staying at the hotel, suffered injuries but most had been discharged from hospital by noon on Monday. CNN has attempted to reach out to the Regent Plaza Hotel for comment.</s>KARACHI: A pre-dawn fire at a hotel in Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi on Monday killed at least 11 people and wounded 75 others, police and a doctor said.

Among the dead were four women while the injured included some foreigners.

“We have received 11 dead bodies and 75 injured, four women were among the dead,” Semi Jamali, a doctor at Karachi’s Jinnah hospital, told Agence France-Presse.

Most of the victims had suffered from smoke inhalation or suffocated, Jamali said.

Some people were injured after jumping from windows to escape the blaze.

Police Senior Superintendent Saqib Memon said the cause of the fire in the Regent Plaza Hotel was not clear and an investigation had been launched.

Memon confirmed the death toll and said it took three hours for the fire to be brought under control.

Building fires in Pakistan are often caused by faulty wiring or electrical short-circuits. AFP</s>At least 11 people, including three women, were suffocated to death and 75 others injured on Monday when a pre-dawn fire ripped through a four-star hotel in Karachi, the fourth blaze to hit Pakistan's largest city in the last two weeks.

IMAGE: A woman mourns the death of a colleague outside a morgue in Karachi. Photograph: Akhtar Soomro/Reuters

The blaze broke out in the kitchen located at the ground floor of the Regent Plaza hotel at the city's Shahrah-i-Faisal area and spread across the six-floor building, trapping nearly 100 hotel guests in their rooms.

Three fire tenders of the fire brigade reached the site and started an operation to rescue the guests. The firefighters were able to contain the fire after three hours, with 11 people having been killed, said Faisal Edhi of the Edhi Foundation.

Mayor of Karachi Waseem Akhtar visited the site of the incident and while talking to media, he said the fire has been contained but the cause of the fire could not be determined as of yet. He said rescue work was hampered due to absence of an emergency exit and spread of heavy smoke.

At least 75 people affected by the fire were brought to the emergency department, Dr Seemin Jamali, head of the emergency services at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, was quoted as saying by Dawn.

Amongst those were people who had fractured bones after jumping from hotel windows to escape, others had been hurt by shattered glass and many were treated for smoke inhalation, she said.

She confirmed the death toll and said the victims suffocated to death.

"Those killed include four women and seven men while the injured include some foreigners as well," she said.

The rescue operation has not ended, and some people are still reportedly trapped inside the hotel. The cause of fire is yet to be ascertained.

IMAGE: A foreign guest carrying her belongings as she leaves after a fire erupted in the hotel early morning. Photograph: Akhtar Soomro/Reuters

Pakistan cricketer Sohaib Maqsood was present in the hotel at the time of the incident.

Another cricketer Yasin Murtaza jumped from the second floor to the ground and fractured his ankle. Karamat Ali was injured by broken glass, according to sources.

"The casualties could have been higher had it not been for the prompt response of the fire department and other rescue officials," IG Sindh, AD Khawaja said.

The offical said that fire-fighters had managed to put out the fire after nearly three hours as it spread rapidly to floors housing guests who were trapped inside their rooms.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah ordered an inquiry into the fire while Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also expressed his condolences over the incident.

Chief Fire Officer Tehseen Siddiqui said that the blaze was contained as it was not very intense and all guests had been evacuated from the hotel.

"Since the smoke kept circulating most of those who died or were injured was due to suffocation but we could contain the fire quickly as the air conditioning system kept on working," he said.

Television footage showed desperate guests trying to escape from their balconies while used bedsheets to climb down from windows.

Karachi, the biggest city of Pakistan, has seen a series of fire incidents in recent weeks. This is the fourth major fire to break out in the city in the last two weeks. Last week, the largest metropolis of the country witnessed what was the third reported blaze in the last 10 days. A three-storey building being used as a warehouse of medicines and chemicals caught fire on December 2. On Saturday, two surveyors were killed as a fire, preceded by a blast, erupted at a methanol storage tank located near the port in Keamari. Earlier, on November 23, a similar incident occurred near Gate No 2 in two storage tanks that were reportedly operated by Shell Oil Marketing Company.</s>KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — A Pakistani police officer says a fire that swept through a four-star hotel in the southern port city of Karachi has killed at least 11 people.

Tauqeer Naeem says more than 50 people suffered injuries in the Monday morning blaze, which started in the hotel kitchen. He says an exact cause of the fire was not known.

Dr. Semi Jamali at Karachi’s Jinnah’s Hospital says some foreigners were among those being treated for burns.

Most of Pakistan’s buildings don’t meet safety standards to avoid such mishaps.

TV footage of the incident showed guests at the hotel using bedsheets to climb down from windows.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — A massive fire swept through a four-star hotel in the southern port city of Karachi on Monday, killing at least 11 people, officials said.

More than 50 people suffered injuries in the early morning blaze, which started in the hotel kitchen, police officer Tauqeer Naeem said.

An exact cause of the fire was not yet known, he said, adding four of those killed were women.

Dr. Semi Jamali at Karachi’s Jinnah’s Hospital said some foreigners were among those being treated for burns. Suffocation caused more deaths, she said.

Most of Pakistan’s buildings don’t meet safety standards to avoid such mishaps.

TV footage of the incident showed guests at the hotel using bedsheets to climb down from windows.

A man standing at a balcony kept waving for help but the hotel didn’t have any means to reach him, a survivor, Hamid Ali, told a local Pakistani TV channel.

He said the guests were sleeping when the fire broke out.</s>A massive fire swept through a four-star hotel in the southern port city of Karachi on Monday, killing at least 11 people, officials said.

More than 50 people suffered injuries in the early morning blaze, which started in the hotel kitchen, police officer Tauqeer Naeem said.

The exact cause of the fire was not yet known, he said, adding that four of the people who died were women.

Dr. Semi Jamali at Karachi’s Jinnah’s Hospital said some foreigners were among those being treated for burns. Suffocation caused more deaths, she said.

Most of Pakistan’s buildings do not meet safety standards.

TV footage of the incident showed guests at the hotel using bedsheets to climb down from windows.

“We tied the bed sheets together to make a rope, and used that to climb down from the fourth floor,” said Khalid Mehmood, one of the injured, speaking from his hospital bed. “We also had to jump mid-way, as the bed sheets weren’t long enough.”

A man standing at a balcony kept waving for help but the hotel did not have any means of reaching him, a survivor, Hamid Ali, told a local Pakistani TV channel.

He said the guests were sleeping when the fire broke out.

“Four to five hours everybody was looking helpless , crying for help and nobody was there to help them,” said another of the injured, Muhammad Saeed, under treatment at the hospital

Several Pakistani cricket players were also staying at the hotel, and one of them broke his ankle when he jumped down, said Naeem, the police officer.</s>Foreign guests leave after a fire erupted in a hotel early morning in Karachi, Pakistan, December 5, 2016. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A fire at a luxury hotel in the Pakistani city of Karachi killed at least 11 people on Monday and injuring dozens, media reported.

The blaze broke out in a ground floor kitchen of the Regent Plaza hotel and trapped guests in upper floors, the English-language Dawn newspaper reported. The hotel has more than 400 rooms.

Video footage showed some hotel guests using a chain of bed sheets to climb down from windows of top floors as smoke filled the hotel

Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar told reporters the cause of the fire was not clear.

Many Pakistani buildings have lax health and safety standards, while the city's firefighters are often equipped with poor and inadequate equipment.

A Reuters cameraman said the fire had been contained by 9:30 a.m. (0430 GMT).

Dawn reported at least 65 people were injured, citing a senior doctor at the city's biggest hospital.

It is not clear if any of the victims were foreign tourists.</s>The rescue operation has not ended, and some people are still reportedly trapped inside the hotel.

At least 11 people, including three women, were killed and 30 others injured on Monday in Pakistan when a huge fire erupted at a four-star hotel here, rescue officials said.

The blaze broke out in the kitchen located at the ground floor of the Regent Plaza hotel at the city’s Shahrah-i- Faisal and spread across the six-floor building, trapping nearly 100 hotel guests in their rooms.

Three fire tenders of the fire brigade reached the site and started an operation to rescue the guests. The firefighters were able to contain the fire after three hours, with 11 people having been killed, said Faisal Edhi of the Edhi Foundation.

Mayor of Karachi Waseem Akhtar visited the site of the incident and while talking to media, he said the fire has been contained but the cause of the fire could not be determined as of yet. He said rescue work was hampered due to absence of an emergency exit and spread of heavy smoke.

At least 65 people affected by the fire were brought to the emergency department, Dr Seemin Jamali, head of the emergency services at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre was quoted as saying by Dawn.

Amongst those were people who had fractured bones after jumping from hotel windows to escape, others had been hurt by shattered glass and many were treated for smoke inhalation, she said.

She said 10 bodies had been brought into the hospital.

Six men including four women are among killed. Three foreigners affected by the fire are in a stable condition, said Jamali.

The rescue operation has not ended, and some people are still reportedly trapped inside the hotel. The cause of fire is yet to be ascertained.

Pakistan cricketer Sohaib Maqsood was present in the hotel at the time of the incident.

Another cricketer Yasin Murtaza jumped from the second floor to the ground and fractured his ankle. Karamat Ali was injured by broken glass, according to sources.
At least 12 people are killed and 75 others injured as a fire erupts in Karachi's Regent Plaza Hotel.