At least 38 dead in Pakistan slum fire

At least 38 people were killed and 25 injured when a fire ripped through dozens of homes in a shantytown in Pakistan's largest city Karachi, government and hospital officials said early Friday morning.

Initial reports indicated the blaze in the teeming southern port city was sparked by a downed power wire that fell onto the roofs of the huts, said the Health Minister of Sindh province, Saghir Ahmed.

Fifteen children and 12 women were among those killed in the fire, which broke out just before midnight (0030 IST) when most residents were asleep, according to Ahmed and hospital officials.

An AFP photographer at the scene said more than 30 huts had been gutted in the massive blaze. Ahmed said the huts destroyed had been home to about 200 people.

"This is just a catastrophe. I have lost everything. My life is destroyed," said weeping survivor Mohammed Khan, whose wife and two children were killed in the fire.

Mashhood Zafar, an official at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital in Karachi, said about half of the 25 wounded were in serious condition with severe burns. Thick black smoke could be seen rising from the scene of the disaster in Karachi, Pakistan's commercial capital which is home to more than 12 million people.

Some residents wept as others desperately combed through the ruins looking for survivors.