Claim: A video shows a portion of Gul Plaza collapsing after the deadly fire on 17 January 2026.
Fact: The video is unrelated and from 4 December 2025, when a fire erupted at a garment factory in the Karachi Export Processing Zone near Landhi Industrial Area.
A day after a deadly fire broke out at Gul Plaza Shopping Mall on 17 January 2026, multiple social media users posted a video claiming that it showed a part of the bustling bazaar in Pakistan’s financial capital, Karachi, collapsing amid the incident (archived here, here, and here, respectively).
“The video shows the collapsing building, destruction, and the aftermath of this terrible disaster in Karachi,” one post stated.
Another said the clip shows “the second portion” of Gul Plaza falling to the ground, while a third criticised an alleged delay in the firefighting operations.
Massive fire at Gul Plaza
A fire erupted on 17 January 2026 at the historic multi-storey Gul Plaza, which had approximately over 1,200 shops, media reports said, adding that the blaze could not be doused until over 24 hours had passed.
Authorities have not confirmed the death toll but officials — including rescue personnel, police, and local government leaders — quoted in news reports say at least two dozen bodies or their remains have been recovered.
Over 80 individuals remain missing, according to a list obtained by Soch Fact Check, while “dozens” were wounded at the business complex located off MA Jinnah Road, a main artery of Karachi.
Rescue 1122 spokesperson Hassaanul Haseeb Khan said, “The cause of the fire is still unknown.” A firefighter also lost his life while trying to douse the Gul Plaza blaze.
On the other hand, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah announced PKR 10 million as compensation for the family of each person who died in the blaze.
“I can’t say whose fault this is,” Shah said, but promised an inquiry, following which “heads will roll”. According to the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP), he said the fire was reported after 10 pm but the “first fire tender reached the site at 10:27 pm”.
According to rescue officials, the front and back facades of the structure had collapsed. As the operation continued, relatives of some of the missing people waited outside the building hoping for news, The Associated Press reported, adding that Karachi “has a history of deadly fires, often blamed on poor safety standards and illegal construction”.
As of data available until 2022, there have been at least 60 shopping mall fires in seven years in Karachi, journalist Mahim Maher wrote on X.
People in the area also chanted anti-government slogans, “protesting about the response time from the fire department”, as Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab visited the site, Reuters reported.
“Shopkeepers and residents told local media that a delayed response and shortages of water and equipment had hampered early firefighting efforts, fuelling anger among traders who said decades of livelihoods had been wiped out,” Al Jazeera reported.
Rescue efforts were hampered due to a lack of ventilation, BBC said, adding that according to Rescue 1122 spokesperson Khan, “the fire spread rapidly because of the presence of flammable materials such as plastic foam, cloth, and perfume in the building”.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse-searched keyframes from the viral video and found it to be unrelated to the Gul Plaza fire.
We found that the clip appeared on social media as early as 4 December 2025, with accompanying captions explaining that it showed a garment factory building in the Karachi Export Processing Zone (KEPZ), near Landhi Industrial Area, collapsing after a fire erupted there on the same day.
Among these posts, the one from Instagram included a logo with the text ‘News 21 Karachi’, using which we were able to trace the original post on Facebook published on 5 December 2025.
The same was also reshared by Sindh Emergency Rescue Service on its official Facebook account. It also posted two other clips showing the matching structure on fire earlier in the day.
Another clip from a different angle, shared by the Times of Karachi, shows the same building collapsing due to the raging fire. Multiple other videos posted online also corroborate the incident, with visuals matching the building in question.
At the time, rescue teams, ambulances, and fire brigade trucks “were immediately dispatched” to the site, according to media reports. They added that Rescue 1122 said the fire was so intense that it led to the factory’s building caving in, injuring two firefighters.
Sukhan police station issued a statement saying the blaze erupted in a warehouse, but there were no casualties as of that time, the reports said.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that the video does not show a portion of Karachi’s Gul Plaza collapsing after a fire broke out on 17 January 2026.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the video circulating here, here, and here on Instagram, here, here, and here on X (formerly Twitter), and here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook.
Conclusion: The video is unrelated and from 4 December 2025.
Background image in cover photo: Soch Videos footage
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