13 units of firefighters participated in fighting the fire (Reuters)
Bangladesh Health Minister Samanta Lal Sen said - today, Friday - that at least 45 people were killed and dozens injured in a massive fire that broke out in a 6-storey building containing several restaurants, where many families were eating with their children.
In turn, the fire authorities said that security gaps caused the fire that broke out yesterday evening in a restaurant in the capital, Dhaka, to worsen and then spread to the rest of the building, killing at least 46 people and injuring dozens who were taken to hospital in critical condition.
The authorities indicated that a gas or stove leak may have been the cause of the fire, which 13 units of firefighters struggled to control, while the firefighters succeeded in saving 75 people.
The Minister of Health told reporters that 22 people with burns were taken to hospitals for treatment, adding that all of them were in critical condition.
Committee to investigate
Reuters quoted doctors as saying that most of the victims died of suffocation, while others were killed because they jumped from the building, which also includes some clothing and mobile phone stores.
For its part, the government announced that it had formed a five-member committee to investigate the incident.
According to Agence France-Presse, fires occur frequently in residential buildings and industrial complexes in this country due to lax implementation of safety rules.
The worst fire in Bangladesh occurred in 2012, on the outskirts of the capital, in a textile factory that exports clothing to Western countries, in which at least 111 workers were killed and more than 200 people were injured.
Source: Agencies