Fire guts mall killing four and trapping 20

Islamabad: A huge blaze gutted a major portion of a multi-storey shopping plaza in Rawalpindi yesterday, killing at least four people and trapping around 20 others in the tangled mass of concrete and iron, officials said.

Rawalpindi administration officials and hospital sources said 41 people were also injured in the Bakkhar Plaza inferno, several of them critically.

Raja Shahid Zafar, owner of the ruined commercial complex, suspected sabotage and said it could be a revenge for last month's Mumbai terror attacks that sparked tension between Pakistan and India.

"(There is a) ninety percent probability is that it was sabotage to avenge the attacks in Mumbai," Zafar, a former federal minister, said on the Geo television.

Authorities said the cause of the fire that broke out in the early hours of the morning and spread quickly was not known.