Fire kills 11 in Bangladesh slum

DHAKA: Eleven people were killed as fire engulfed a slum in Bangladeshi capital Dhaka in the wee hours of Sunday, fire service said.

Ataur Rahman, duty officer of the fire office in Dhaka, told Xinhua by phone that the blaze broke out in a slum in Hazaribagh residential area at around 3 a.m. local time, killing 11 persons, including four children and five women.

However, he could not give the exact figure of the injured.

Rahman said that the fire might have been sparked by a cigarette butt in a rickshaw garage and spread to the slum, damaging over 1,000 shanties.

Rahman said the fire had been put out by the firefighters and the bodies of the victims were recovered. He said the death toll was high since people were asleep.

Dhaka, a city of over 15.2 million people, has some 5,000 slum areas which are inhabited mainly by day laborers.