After a fire tore through the Gul Plaza shopping mall in Pakistan’s biggest city Karachi in mid-January, dramatic AI-generated images circulated in social media posts falsely claiming they showed the blaze. The images, which differ from AFP photos and video of the fire and its aftermath, also contain visual errors indicative of AI-generated content.
“Deeply saddened by the unfortunate fire incident at Gul Plaza Karachi. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families during this difficult time,” reads the caption of an image shared on X on January 19, 2026.
The image shows black smoke billowing from a burning building, with firefighters trying to put out the fire.
A similar image shared in an X post on January 18 is captioned: “Gul Plaza was not just a shopping center, it was a cultural icon of Karachi. The exact number of lives lost in the fire may never be fully known, but the scale of loss is heartbreaking.”
Screenshots of false X posts captured on January 27, 2026, with red Xs added by AFP
The images were also shared in similar Facebook, Instagram and X posts.
They spread in the days after a major fire — which police blamed on “negligence and carelessness” — ripped through the Gul Plaza shopping centre in Pakistan’s biggest city of Karachi on January 17 (archived link).
According to a January 25 report by Pakistani media organisation Dawn, at least 73 people were killed in the blaze (archived link).
While fires are common in Karachi’s markets and factories, which are known for their poor infrastructure, a blaze on such a scale is rare (archived link).
The images circulating online, however, do not show the fire that engulfed the shopping centre.
Google reverse image searches flagged the pictures as having been “made with Google AI”.
Further analysis using SynthID — a detector launched by Google in May 2025 to identify AI-generated content — identified with a “very high” level of confidence that the images were created with the help of its AI tools (archived link).
Screenshots of the SynthID Detector results
A visual comparison of the AI-generated images and AFP photographs of the deadly blaze shows multiple errors.
These errors include a misspelling of the shopping centre’s name, the building being incorrectly structured, and missing high-rise buildings in the background.
Screenshot comparison between the AI-generated images (left and centre) and AFP photograph at the scene (right), with inconsistencies highlighted by AFP
Moreover, an AFP video shows there was extensive damage to large sections of Gul Plaza which housed approximately 1,200 shops (archived link).
BBC Verify also debunked the falsely shared images during its coverage on January 19 (archived link).
AFP has previously fact-checked other AI-generated visuals misrepresented as real incidents and disasters.