More than 100 people have been killed in a fire that razed a crowded Dhaka neighbourhood overnight, and the toll is expected to rise as rescue workers search for more bodies in the smouldering debris.
The blaze is the worst to sweep through the capital since 1971, according to the fire brigade. The country's police chief Nur Mohammad, said it was difficult to give an exact casualty toll.
A fire brigade official said 87 bodies had been recovered from the area so far. Nur Mohammad said: "I was on the scene through last night, and can guess the number of death could be around 100. But we have to wait to know the final casualty figures."
A woman looking for her daughter and son in what remained of the centuries-old Kayettuli neighbourhood said: "It seemed like hell broke loose."
TV channels put the death toll at between 107 and 150, including a dozen people who died in hospital from injuries sustained in the fire, which is believed to have been started by an explosion in an electrical transformer.
