Eight killed in Bangladesh slum fire

Chittagong: A devastating blaze raced through a crammed impoverished area in southeastern Bangladesh on Sunday, killing eight people and injuring several others, a fire official said.

The fire broke out early in the morning in the Chaktai area of Chittagong city while the slum dwellers were asleep, according to the the official, Jasim Uddin.

"While trying to control the fire, we formed a search team and the team found four dead bodies belonging to the same family. Later we looked into another room and found three more dead bodies. Lastly, we found one unidentified dead body. And in total we retrieved eight dead bodies up until now," said Jasim Uddin, Deputy Director of Fire Service and Civil Defence.

At least 200 shanty homes were gutted before firefighters brought the blaze under control, Uddin said, adding that four of the dead were from a single family.

He said the cause of the fire was not yet known and that an investigation was ordered.

Chittagong is 216 kilometers southeast of the capital, Dhaka.