Pakistan: Goverments buildling in Lahore catches fire, at least 8 killed

USPA News - At least eight people were killed after a government building caught fire in eastern Pakistan, local media reported on Thursday. The Lahore Development Authority plaza, which is a 13-story building located in Lahore, the provincial capital of Punjab, caught fire on its seventh and eighth floors at around 12 p.m. local time, the Express Tribune reported.

As emergency teams struggled to arrive and operate quickly due to wrongly parked vehicles outside the building, a number of people desperately jumped out of the building in hope of surviving. One person who jumped died on the spot while two others doing the same later succumbed to their wounds. In total, at least eight people were confirmed dead. Several others were also trapped, but the number of injured was not immediately known. Nonetheless, those injured were being transferred to the Ganga Ram Hospital. Two helicopters were also deployed and were evacuating victims. The exact cause of the fire was not immediately known, although it spread quickly in a matter of minutes.