Man pulled alive from collapsed Karachi building

Rescuers on Saturday pulled a man alive from the rubble of a residential building that had collapsed three days ago in Karachi’s Golimar area.

As the man was shifted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for the first aid, there are more people feared to be stuck beneath the rubble as the rescue work is underway.

According to the Rescue workers, they heard voices of women crying for help throughout last night.

Rescuers using their bare hands searched for another seven people missing after the building collapsed on Thursday in which 16 people had been killed so far.

Soldiers have been deployed to help in the search efforts after a five-storey building and two adjoining houses collapsed. 

The residential building had been constructed as a four-storey complex, but another floor was added about a year ago, in violation of construction rules, officials said earlier.

A building inspector said the sewage system appeared to have triggered the disaster, but a full technical investigation would be carried out.

Narrow alleyways have restricted the access of heavy machinery to the disaster site, meaning much of the rubble is being cleared manually.

Authorities have sealed off the area, with soldiers standing guard and blocking curious onlookers in the city's central district.

Roof and building collapses are common across Pakistan mainly because of poor safety standards and shoddy construction materials in the South Asian country of 200 million.