Officials in Dhaka on Friday confirmed the deaths of at least 44 people, with dozens more injured, following a fire at a commercial building.
The blaze erupted at the seven-story Green Cozy Cottage, home to numerous restaurants and clothing stores, on Bailey Road in central Dhaka on Thursday evening.
Brig. Gen. Main Uddin, chief of the Fire Service and Civil Defence emergency department, reported that firefighters took over three hours to extinguish the flames and retrieve the bodies, primarily of restaurant patrons, from the building.
Three people died at the scene while the rest died at health facilities, he said, adding that firefighters rescued 75 people from inside the building.
Health Minister Samanta Lal Sen said the bodies of 43 victims were kept at the state-run Dhaka Medical College Hospital and Sheikh Hasina Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute in Dhaka.
Twenty-two people are said to be in critical condition, he said.
Bangladesh police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun said another person had died after being taken to a nearby police hospital.
The reason behind the fire was initially unclear, he added. The Fire Service and Civil Defense Department launched an investigation to determine the extent of damage and the cause of the incident.
Department head Uddin said a gas stove at one of the ground-floor restaurants might have caused the accident.
Shoppers and restaurant guests were trapped inside the building as flames and smoke engulfed the building, he said, adding that some managed to escape by climbing down the external water pipeline.
A few people jumped from the second floor, according to a witness.
Deaths from fires in multistory buildings are frequent in Bangladesh due to lax monitoring of fire safety rules.
A fire that swept through a six-story food processing factory near Dhaka killed at least 52 people, many of whom were trapped behind a locked door, in July 2021.
In February 2019, at least 70 people were killed and 55 others injured after a fire broke out in a densely populated residential area at Chawk Bazar in the old part of Dhaka.
