Bangladesh tourist resort fire kills 10

At least 10 tourists have been killed in a fire at a seaside resort in the southeastern Bangladeshi district of Cox’s Bazar, the country’s largest travel destination, officials said on Saturday.

Dolon Acharya, an officer at the Fire Service and Civil Defence department, said the fire broke out in the morning at Tuptup Resto and Resort at Patuartek beach. The flames gutted the entire facility. The scene is located more than 320km (199 miles) southeast of the capital Dhaka.

Acharya said firefighters pulled the charred bodies from inside the resort. Six other wounded people were rescued and rushed to a hospital, he said, adding three fire engines took nearly two hours to douse the blaze.

Talha Bin Jasim, spokesman for the Fire Service and Civil Defence department, said the dead included five women and a 5-year-old boy. Most of them had travelled from the capital Dhaka.

He later said that the identity of four more bodies found in the debris could not be determined.

The resort, housed in a two-storey wooden-framed building, was operated as a beachfront retreat located directly along the scenic Marine Drive. It offered eco-style accommodation with panoramic views of both the sea and the hills, according to the resort’s website.

The reason behind the fire was not known immediately.

Sultanul Afreen Junaid, chief of the Fire Service and Civil Defence department, said at a news conference at the department’s Dhaka headquarters that the resort lacked fire safety.

He said no approval was given by any government agency for the construction of the resort.

M A Mannan, the chief administrator of the district, said an investigation was launched to determine the cause of the fire and the damage it caused.

Famous for the largest unbroken sandy sea beach on the bank of the Bay of Bengal, Cox’s Bazar is Bangladesh’s main tourist destination, frequented by more than 3 million travellers annually.

Most of them are domestic tourists, according to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.