Murder Charges Filed After Pakistan Factory Fire

Police in Pakistan have filed murder charges against the owners of a factory where nearly 300 people died in a fire.

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik confirmed Thursday that 264 people were killed when a blaze ripped through a garment factory in the southern port city of Karachi. Officials had earlier put the death toll from Tuesday's fire at 289.

Police say a murder case has been filed against the owners of the Ali Enterprises factory. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Many of the dead were found in the factory's basement. Police say they were trapped because the building had no emergence exits. Others jumped out of windows to escape the flames and smoke.

Relatives of missing factory workers spent a second day at local hospitals Thursday, trying to determine the whereabouts of their loved ones.

Another fire at a shoe factory in the eastern city of Lahore Tuesday killed at least 25 people.