KARACHI, Jan 9: At least 40 people, 22 of them children, died when a fire engulfed about two dozen huts in the city’s North Karachi area after Thursday midnight.

Over 100 people were living in the huts built in a small area of about 240 square yards.

Executive district officer (municipal services) Masood Alam told reporters that some residents had lit a fire to keep themselves warm. But one of the huts, made of bamboo and wood, caught fire and the wind fanned it out of control. A few gas cylinders burst, adding the intensity to the fire which soon engulfed all the huts. Most of the victims were asleep at that time.

There were walled houses on three sides of the huts and the open side was blocked by flames. According to witnesses, about 60 people living in huts on the open side managed to escape.

“I was sitting with my friends when we heard screams. We rushed to find out what had happened and saw the huts engulfed in flames. We tried to put out the fire but it was beyond control. The fire brigade arrived after some time and put out the fire, but by that time the damaged had been done,” said a resident.

People living in the area did petty jobs. A taxi car and a motorcycle parked in the area were gutted. About 15 people suffered minor burns.

“I saw the charred body of a child stuck to his mother,” said a worker of Edhi Foundation. “We have received 40 charred bodies. Twenty-two of them are children, 12 women and six men,” said Dr Mashhooduz Zafar, Medical Superintendent of the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. Among the children, 12 were girls and 10 boys, aged one to 12 years.

“Most of the bodies were burnt almost beyond identification,” he said. The survivors were taken to a nearby office of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and later to a government school.

An injured man told Dawn that over 100 people had been living in the huts for several years and most of them hailed from Rahim Yar Khan.

Atta Mohammad, who suffered burns, said he had lost his wife and three children. In the hospital, a middle-aged man, Asghar, said nine of his relatives had been killed. “I came here to look for my sister and her seven children, but all of them are dead.”