A huge fire has engulfed several floors at a multi-storey hotel in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, killing 11 people and wounding dozens of others.
Most deaths at the Regent Plaza Hotel in downtown Karachi occurred due to suffocation after the fire broke out early on Monday morning when guests were asleep, the city's mayor, Wasim Ahmed, said.
Four women are among the dead while players from a regional cricket team jumped out of windows, some of whom suffered fractured limbs, Ahmed said.
At least 65 people including foreign nationals were being treated at the city's Jinnah Hospital, doctor Seemi Jamali said.
An initial probe suggested an electric short-circuit might have caused the fire but an investigation was underway, police official Nadeem Khan said.
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All the guests trapped on the top floor of the hotel have been rescued, said Faisal Edhi, head of the Edhi Rescue Services.
A lack of emergency exits on some floors and unmarked ones on the others aggravated the situation, mayor Ahmed told journalists.
Fires at commercial buildings like hotels, factories and shopping malls cause numerous deaths in Pakistan every year because safely protocols are rarely followed.
In 2012, more than 250 labourers were killed by a blaze at a garment factory in Karachi in an incident that drew a huge international focus on workers' safety.
