At least 11 people were killed and several injured as a fire raged through a slum in the Bangladeshi capital early Sunday, police and firefighters said. The blaze broke out around 3 am when most of the residents of the Bou Bazar slum in central Dhaka were asleep, civil defense officer Abdul Halim said. Thirty-five people who sustained severe burn injuries were undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, he was quoted as saying by DPA. As many as 500 homes made mostly of bamboo and polyethylene sheets were burned to ashes, police said. Jahangir Kabir Nanak, a junior minister, visited the accident and pledged government support to the victims, mostly day laborers and their families.
