Members of City Fire Services use an aerial lift to move a dead body recovered from a building, after a fire at a garment factory in Karachi September 12, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

ISLAMABAD - A total of 166 people have been confirmed dead in a garment factory fire in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi, said Roshan Ali Sheikh, Commissioner of Karachi, on Wednesday.

This is the first official figure announced by the Karachi government about the casualties of the fire which broke out at about 6:00 pm local time Tuesday in the four-storey factory building in the western part of the city.