Misleading
Fact-Checked
- 19.01.2026
Viral video does not show Gul Plaza building collapsing after fire; it’s from 2025
CLAIM
Viral video of Karachi’s Gul Plaza shopping mall collapsing after massive fire
RATING JUSTIFICATION
The iVerify Pakistan team investigated this content and determined that it is misleading.
To reach this conclusion, iVerify Pakistan conducted a reverse image search and a keyword search to trace the original source.
Multiple users on social media platform X since January 18, 2026, were sharing a video claiming that it shows the Gul Plaza building in Karachi collapsing after a fire erupted inside the shopping centre. However, the clip is a month old from December 2025 and actually shows an inferno at a garment factory in Karachi’s Landhi Export Processing Zone.
On the night of January 17, a fire erupted at Gul Plaza, killing at least 21 people. The inferno at the mall located on M.A. Jinnah Road was said to have been doused after more than 24 hours.
On Monday, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah noted that dozens of people trapped inside the plaza were still missing, adding that a search operation was underway.
HOW IT STARTED
On Jan 18, an X user, who calls himself a PTI supporter in his bio, shared a video that showed a building engulfed by a massive blaze.
“If an incident like Gul Plaza had happened in Peshawar instead of Karachi, the sold-out media would have turned the earth and sky upside down against the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, but there is complete silence on the incompetence of the Sindh government. More than 1200 shops have been reduced to ashes, while many people have lost their lives in this incident,” read the caption of the post. It gained 35,000 views.
A Pakistani journalist also shared the clip on X with the caption: “The Corpse of Karachi”. The post, which gathered about 13,300 views, included the hashtags ‘Gul Plaza’ and ‘Karachi Fire’.
Former deputy speaker of the National Assembly and PTI leader Qasim Khan Suri shared the video on Facebook, alleging that Gul Plaza had been “razed to the ground” due to government incompetence. His post received more than 4,400 views.
The video was also shared on LinkedIn and other social media platforms with similar captions, as can be seen here, here, here, and here.
METHODOLOGY
A fact-check was initiated due to the video’s virality and the public interest surrounding the recent fire at Gul Plaza.
A reverse image search yielded an X post shared by Pakistani journalist Shahid Hussain on December 5, 2025, identifying the video as showing a garment factory collapsing after a fire in Karachi’s Landhi Export Processing Zone.
“Last night, the scene of the garment factory building collapsing in the Landhi Export Processing Zone area of Karachi as a result of a fire,” read the caption.
Further investigation revealed a Facebook post dated December 4, 2025, which shared the same video and described it as showing a severe fire that broke out at a garment factory in the Landhi EPZ area, destroying the building.
Separately, a keyword search yielded a Dawn news report published on December 05, 2025, titled “Massive blaze rips through sprawling garment factory at Karachi’s Landhi EPZ”. According to the report, a three-storey garment factory spread over 2,000 square yards collapsed after a massive fire raged for several hours.
The report stated that while two firefighters were injured during the operation and several hundred workers were safely evacuated, authorities confirmed that no loss of human life occurred due to the fire or the building’s collapse.
The visual elements seen in the Dawn report and social media posts from December 2025 match those in the viral video, confirming that the clip is unrelated to the recent Gul Plaza fire incident.
FACT-CHECK STATUS: MISLEADING
The claim that a viral video shows the recent fire incident at Karachi’s Gul Plaza Shopping Centre is misleading.
The clip instead is from December 2025, wherein a garment factory located in Karachi collapsed following a fire.
EVIDENCE AND REFERENCES
December 05, 2025, X video:
December 04, 2025, Facebook video:
December 05, 2025, Dawn news article: