Death toll rises to six from Bangladesh’s ship-breaking yard fire

Dhaka, Sep 15 (SocialNews.XYZ) The death toll from last week's explosion and fire at a ship-breaking yard in southeastern Bangladesh rose to six with two more injured succumbing to their wounds, an official said.

The victims died on Saturday at a hospital in Dhaka, said Tariqul Islam, a resident physician of the institute.

"With this, the death toll in the explosion rose to six," he told journalists, adding that the death toll may rise further as several critically injured patients are undergoing treatment.

Jahangir Hawlader, 45, and Barkatullah, 23, were declared dead in between 6 a.m. and 6:30 a.m., he said at the hospital.

Jahangir and Barkatullah had suffered burn on 70 and 50 per cent of their bodies respectively, he added.

At least 12 people were wounded on September 7 after a blast sparked a fire at a ship-breaking factory in Sitakunda on the outskirts of Bangladesh's southeastern Chattogram seaport city. Four of them had died earlier, Xinhua news agency reported.

Among the injured, Anwar Hossain and Abul Kashem who are still undergoing treatment at the burn institute, have 25 per cent and 70 per cent burn injuries, hospital sources said.

Their condition is critical too, the sources said.

Bangladesh's Ministry of Industries has formed a committee to investigate the accident while operations at the ship-breaking yard have been suspended until further notice.

Bangladesh's Sitakunda sea beaches have emerged as one of the world's largest ship-breaking yards, with many European shipping companies sending their end-of-life ships for scrap.

Source: IANS