ISLAMABAD - At least six people were killed and over 20 others injured after a fire broke out at a shopping mall in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi late Saturday night, officials said on Sunday.

Spokesperson of the southern Sindh province, Sadia Javed, told Xinhua that the blaze erupted at Gul Plaza, a multi-storey shopping mall located on the MA Jinnah Road, which houses over 1,200 shops.

The spokesperson added that the firefighting teams have been working consistently to control the 3rd-degree fire, which spread to several floors of the plaza.

An official from Rescue 1122, Hassaanul Haseeb Khan, said that firefighting efforts had managed to control about 40 percent of the blaze by early Sunday morning.

"The majority of the shops contain goods such as crockery, clothing, electrical appliances, cosmetics and perfumes, which intensified the fire," said the rescue official, adding that a section of the plaza collapsed and a rescue worker was buried under it.

The rescue official said that several people are still trapped in the building and efforts are being made to rescue them.

Police officials said the fire initially broke out in shops on the ground floor of the building and appeared to have been caused by a short circuit before spreading to other parts of the mall.