Over 190 people dead in factory fires in Pakistan

Karachi, Pakistan: Pakistani officials say the death toll from devastating factory fires that broke out in two major cities has risen to 191.

Senior government official Roshnan Ali Sheikh said on Wednesday that the fire at a garment factory in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi killed 166 people. A blaze at a shoe factory in the eastern city of Lahore that also broke out on Tuesday night killed 25 people.

Firefighter chief Ehtisham-ud-Din says most of the garment factory deaths were caused by suffocation as people caught in the basement were unable to escape.