By IANS,
Dhaka : At least 11 people, including four children and five women, were burnt to death here after fire engulfed a slum early Sunday, according to fire officials.
The blaze, which was doused later, broke out in a slum in the city’s Hazaribagh residential area at around 3 a.m., killing 11 people, reported Xinhua quoting Ataur Rahman, a fire service official. The number of injured was yet to be confirmed.
He said 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 toll was high since people were asleep.
The capital city of Dhaka, having a population of over 15 million people, has some 5,000 slum areas.