More Than 40 Dead in Bangladesh Restaurant Fire

AFP/APP
Dhaka: At least 44 people were killed and dozens injured after a fire blazed through a seven-storey building in an upscale neighbourhood in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka late Thursday, authorities said.
“So far 43 people have died from the fire,” Bangladesh’s health minister Samanta Lal Sen told AFP after visiting the Dhaka Medical College Hospital and an adjoining burn hospital.
Police inspector Bacchu Mia said one more person died at Dhaka’s main police hospital to bring the death toll to 44.
Sen said at least 40 injured people were being treated in the city’s main burn hospital.
“None of them are out of danger,” he told AFP.
Fire department official Mohammad Shihab said the blaze originated in a popular biriyani restaurant in Dhaka’s Bailey Road at 9:50pm Thursday (1550 GMT), and quickly spread to the upper floors, trapping scores of people.
Firefighters brought the blaze under control in two hours, he said.
They rescued 75 people alive, a statement from the fire service said.
Fire officials told reporters they suspected the inferno was caused by a gas cylinder blast at the restaurant.
The government has ordered a probe into the incident.