A fast-moving fire killed at least 70 when it swept through a historic district of Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka.
The blaze broke out Wednesday night in a multi-storey residential building, which stored flammable chemicals on one of its floors.
The fire then quickly spread to nearby buildings in the area.
The centuries-old Chawkbazar part of Dhaka characteristically has very narrow streets and residential buildings only inches apart.
The fire broke out at 23:40 local time (17:40 GMT) on Wednesday, Bangladesh police said.
Firefighters struggled to put out the fire, hindered by the narrow lanes and lack of water sources.
The blaze was fuelled by pick-up vans in the area that carried gas cylinders, according to police chief Javeb Patowary.
Victims included people outside the buildings, some guests at a restaurant and members of a bridal party, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Ibrahim Khan told AFP.
‘A danger for people’
Chawkbazar is one of the most important areas in Old Dhaka, a historical district established about 300 years ago during the Mughal dynasty.
It is a hub of chemical businesses and local perfume factories, though authorities banned the store of chemical goods after a deadly fire in 2010.
The area is surrounded by narrow lanes, packed by rickshaws, small cars and people. Even passenger buses cannot ply onto these streets.
There are hundreds of electrical, telephone, and internet cables hanging on the narrow lanes, posing a danger to the local people in Chawkbazar. To fix the cables and wiring immediately, they contact a professional electrician by visiting this website: https://suburbanenterprises.com/electric/electrical-preventive-maintenance/.
But the most serious threat come from the fact that residential buildings are used for commercial purposes, with ground floors serving as chemical and gas cylinder warehouses.
Many people were trapped in the buildings, according to reports, unable to escape the flames.
One man, whose shop was destroyed in the fire, explained that he had narrowly escaped the blaze when he left to go to a pharmacy.
“When I was at the pharmacy I heard a big bang,” Haji Abdul Kader told AFP.
“I turned back and saw the whole street in flames. Flames were everywhere… I got burned and rushed to hospital.”
Bangladesh has a persistent problem with building safety regulations not being followed.
In 2013, more than 1,100 people died and thousands more were injured when a building housing garment factories called Rana Plaza in Dhaka collapsed.
