KARACHI: As many as 50 cars were gutted when a huge fire erupted on a plot being used to park government-owned vehicles in the Clifton area on Monday morning, police and rescue officials said.

The police said that the 4,000-square-yard plot was being used as Nazarat, also called the central pool for unclaimed and retired vehicles, and it belonged to the Sindh services and general administration department.

While the Rescue-1122 suspected it was an arson act, the police ruled out the possibility of sabotage.

Rescue-1122 official Hassaan Khan told Dawn that their central command and control received information from a policeman about a fire in Clifton, Block-1 near Qurtaba Masjid at around 5:37am.

The official said that three fire tenders controlled the blaze at around 8am.

He estimated that around 50 cars were destroyed in the blaze. There were around 150 retired vehicles belonging to the different departments of the Sindh government, he said.

Given the extent of the damage and sudden spread of the fire that engulfed so many vehicles, Mr Khan suspected an arson act behind it. However, he added that the exact cause of the fire was still being looked into.

Meanwhile, Boat Basin SHO Naseer Tanoli ruled out the possibility of any sabotage behind the incident and suspected that some drug addicts might have caused the fire while consuming the contraband at the plot.

At the time of the incident, the watchman of the plot was not present.

The area SHO said that the police had estimated that over 20 cars had been destroyed.

The police were further investigating the case, he added.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2024