Roof collapse during fire kills 5 in Pakistan

KARACHI, Jan 15 (Reuters) At least five people, including three fire fighters, were killed and 19 injured today when a portion of a factory roof collapsed during a fire in Pakistan's southern city of Karachi, officials said.

People were trapped underneath the rubble and firefighters and rescue workers were trying to free them, Wasim Akhtar, the provincial home minister said. Karachi is the capital of the Sindh province.

''Three of the dead are firefighters who had gone into the building to put out the fire,'' Akhtar told Reuters. ''Two others are factory workers.'' The cause of the fire was not yet known, a fire department official said, though in the past such incidents were mainly caused by electrical faults.

''We also don't know for sure how many people are still trapped in the rubble. We have controlled the fire to a great extent,'' the official Ghulam Qadir said.

Liaqat Ali, a doctor at a state-run hospital, said the men had been killed by the roof collapse and not the fire.

REUTERS LL RAI2002