AT least 44 people have been killed after a fire broke out in a multi-storey building in Bangladesh, the country’s health minister says.
According to local media, the blaze began in a restaurant at around 22:00 local time (16:00 GMT) on Thursday in the capital, Dhaka.
Seventy-five people were rescued and dozens were brought to hospital.
The fire was bought under control after two hours, according to fire officials, and the cause is being investigated.
Bangladesh’s Health Minister, Samanta Lal Sen, said that at least 33 people, including women and children, had been declared dead at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
At least 10 others died at the city’s main burns hospital. Twenty-two were in critical condition, Mr Sen said.
The emergency services were called to the Kacchi Bhai restaurant which, according to the Daily Bangladesh newspaper, is in a building that has seven floors.
The complex that the building is in also contains other restaurants, as well as several clothing and mobile phone shops.
The fire could have originated from a gas leak or stove, said the head of the Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence, Brigadier General Main Uddin, according to AFP news agency.
“It was a dangerous building with gas cylinders on every floor, even on the staircases,” Brig Gen Uddin told reporters.
