The death toll in the fire at a restaurant building on Bailey Road in Bangladesh capital Dhaka at the night following Thursday has increased to 46, health minister Samanta Lal Sen said on Friday morning.
Additional district magistrate AKM Hedayetul Islam of the Dhaka district administration on Friday morning said that 39 of the deceased were so far identified.
The district administration with the help of police and fire service personnel began to handover the bodies of the identified deceased ones to their family members after 5:30am on Friday, he said.
Earlier at about 2:30am, the inspector general of police, Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun, informed reporters at Dhaka Medical College Hospital that at least 44 people were killed in the fire.
Among them, 33 bodies were kept at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, 10 at the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery, and one at Dhaka's police hospital in Razarbagh, he stated while visiting DMCH.
The deceased included women and children.
Officials said that around two dozen people, mostly with burn injuries during the fire, were admitted to DMCH and Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery and were undergoing treatment there.
Health minister Samanta Lal Sen, also a pioneer in establishing burn units across the country, also visited DMCH early Monday and said that the condition of the patients with burn injuries was serious as they were affected with burns in respiratory system due to inhaling extreme hot air during the fire.
鈥榃e are trying to keep them alive,鈥� the minister said and added that the government was providing the patients with free treatment.
Officials at Fire Service headquarters said that they received the news of the fire at Kachchi Bhai Restaurant at about 9:50pm on Thursday and rushed to the spot within a few minutes.
Later, several teams of police, Rapid Action Battalion, and Border Guards of Bangladesh joined the rescue operation.
The multi-storey building, known as Green Cosy Cottage Shopping Mall, accommodates several restaurants, clothing stores, and mobile shops.
They said that 13 firefighting units managed to bring the fire under control at about 11:50pm. The reason for the fire could not be known immediately.
The rescuers, however, reported that a large number of gas cylinders were stored in the restaurants and stairs of the building.
The media cell of the Fire Service and Civil Defence in a message at about 12:45am said that at least three people were found dead and 42 others were rescued in unconscious state during the fire at the restaurant on Bailey Road.
It said that 75 people were rescued alive from the building affected by the fire.
Dhaka Medical College Hospital Police Outpost in-charge Bachchu Mia said that the unconscious ones brought to the hospitals by the fire service and police personnel were declared dead on arrival.
Officials at the hospitals said that those brought to the hospitals in unconscious state were brought dead.
Inspector Bachchu said that at least 14 of the injured victims were admitted to DMCH while eight others were taken to the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery for treatment.
Fire service in a statement early Friday said that they formed a five member committee to probe the fire incident.