RAWALPINDI, Dec 20: A massive fire gutted a major shopping plaza here on Saturday, killing at least five people and injuring 59 others.

Four of the injured who jumped for life from the third floor of the city’s landmark Ghakkar plaza suffered multiple injuries. One of them later died in hospital.

More than 25 people, including fire-fighters and rescue workers, were feared trapped in the smouldering debris of the building, which came crashing down 12 hours after the blaze erupted in the early morning. Seven of them were later rescued.

Four of the dead were identified as Sajjad Khurshid, a fireman, Waqas Abbasi, Nadeem Kiani and Mansoor Raja, a caretaker of the building.

Six of the injured were fire-fighters from Rescue 1122 and one police official.

Sixteen of the injured were taken to the District Headquarters Hospital, 38 to Cantonment Hospital, two to Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Hospital, three to CMH and one to Holy Family Hospital.

Sources said that the fire broke out in the ground floor and soon engulfed the entire building, which was constructed in the 1980s. An investigation has been ordered to ascertain the cause, but security officials ruled out any terrorist activity.

The five-storey mall, which had no proper fire-extinguishing equipment and emergency exits, housed at least 500 shops dealing in garments, electronics, cosmetics, jewellery, shoes and leather goods.

There was also a restaurant at the rooftop.

Clouds of thick black and grey smoke could be seen from far away. Fire-fighters from the Cantonment, the city government, CDA, Taxila, POF Wah, Air Force and Bahria Town battled the leaping flames for more than 16 hours.

Rescue workers put their lives on the line and worked till late into the night to save around a dozen fire-fighters and volunteers feared trapped under the rubble.

The Army was also called in to assist the rescuers. A contingent of Army engineers carrying earth-mowing equipment rushed to the site, Inter-Services Public Relations said.

The administration, sensing the enormity of the task, pressed in helicopters late in the day to help douse the blaze and deployed heavy construction machinery to remove concrete beams and reach out to the trapped.

The place resounded with deafening bangs at regular intervals, caused by electricity generators used by most of the shopkeepers.

A number of relatives and friends of the missing were seen crying their hearts out outside the building.

“Zeeshan had been calling me from inside and asking me to rescue him,” his helpless brother Naveed said.

A witness said: “I am watching it now and I think it is going to collapse because cracks have started appearing in the building. It is an inferno. There will be no market and shoppers now.”

AFP adds: Rawalpindi police chief Nasir Durrani said that fire-fighters and rescue workers were battling to save those believed to be under the rubble. The cause of the massive blaze was not immediately known. Plaza owner Shahid Zafar, a former federal minister, told a private TV channel that he suspected sabotage.

“It could be in revenge for the Mumbai attacks, because a fire caused by a short circuit could not spread that quickly,” he said, estimating that shopkeepers had lost millions of dollars.