A fire tore through a shopping mall in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, killing at least nine people, officials and local media said on Saturday.

Local broadcaster Geo News said the blaze started early in the morning at the multi-storey RJ shopping mall in Pakistan’s most populous city, and that the fire brigade had rescued around 50 people but more remained inside the building.

Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui confirmed in a post on social media platform X that at least nine bodies had been transferred to local hospitals after the fire.

“Search process continues,” he added.

The cause of the blaze was not immediately clear. Geo reported several people injured in the fire were also being treated in hospital.