(AFP) At least 44 people died and dozens were injured Thursday in the fire that ripped through a seven-story building in an exclusive neighborhood of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, authorities have reported.
Health Minister Samanta Lal Sen had earlier told AFP after visiting a hospital that "43 people died in the fire" and that at least 40 injured were being treated. Police inspector Bacchu Mia said, for his part, that another person died at the medical center, increasing the death toll to 44.
The Government ordered an investigation into what happened
Mohammad Shihab, a fire department official, said the fire started in a popular restaurant in Dhaka at 9:50 p.m. local time on Thursday (3:50 p.m. GMT) and spread to the upper floors, trapping many people.
The fire was caused by the explosion of a gas pipe in the restaurant, said the firefighters, who managed to get the fire under control in two hours, he added.
75 people were rescued alive, a statement from the firefighters reported.
The building housed several restaurants, clothing and cell phone stores.
"We were on the sixth floor when we saw smoke coming up the stairs. Many people went up to other floors. Others used a pipe to go down. Some of us were injured going down," said a manager of a restaurant called Sohel.
Trapped on the roof of the building
"We were sending the women and children down, including my wife and my son. Firefighters, helped us. Many men were on the roof. We had to get about 50 out," Kamruzzaman Majumdar, an environmental professor, said on Facebook. Majumdar was later rescued and brought to safety.
Hundreds of distraught relatives gathered at Dhaka Medical College Hospital as ambulances brought the dead and injured from the scene.
Fires in apartment buildings or factories are common in Bangladesh due to lax safety rules. In July 2021, at least 52 people died, including many children, when a food factory caught fire. In February 2019, 70 people died in an explosion at a group of apartment buildings.
