Slum fire kills 11 in Bangladesh

At least 11 people, mostly women and children, were killed and several others injured on Sunday, in a fire that ripped through a massive slum on the outskirts of the Bangladeshi capital.

The fire was apparently ignited from a mosquito coil and soon engulfed the entire slum in the Hazaribagh area here, officials said.

Eleven people, including six women, four children and one man, were killed in the fire, they said.

“We recovered the 11 charred bodies...seven people were sent to hospital with severe burn injuries,” fire service official Ruhul Amin told PTI.

Several private television channels, however, quoting witnesses put the toll as high as 14 in the fire that burnt down some 100 shanties.

The reports said the fire started at around 3 am (local time) in the morning and several fire engines reached the scene within a short time but it took fire fighters hours to douse the blaze.