Five die, dozens injured as elevator falls causing wall collapse, fire in Uttara

At least five persons have died and scores were injured when a wall collapsed on them due to the impact of an elevator fall that also caused fire at a high-rise in Dhaka’s Uttara.

Senior Correspondentand Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 24 June 2016, 02:56 PM
Updated : 24 June 2016, 07:10 PM

DMP Deputy Commissioner Bidhan Tripura said police have sent five bodies to the morgue for post-mortem examination after the mishap on Thursday.

He said he heard another body was taken away. “We are checking the matter,” he added.

Uttara West Police Station OC Ali Hossain Khan said the deceased persons included three males and two females.

Two of them were identified as Rezaul Karim Rana, 32, and Salma Akter, 40.

Earlier, Fire Service Director General Mohammad Ali Ahmed Khan confirmed the cause of deaths to bdnews24.com.

He said four persons died in the accident.

“There was a place for prayers in the basement. The wall in the basement next to the elevator shaft collapsed when the lift fell causing the deaths. Another person at the spot was injured,” he said.

Police said the fire started in the basement of Alauddin Tower around 6:30pm on Thursday.

The tower houses a shopping mall and several offices. Panic gripped the shopkeepers and shoppers of the mall after the incidents.

An official at the Fire Service control room said the firefighters doused the blaze after about an hour and a half.

Later, control room official Mohammad Mahmudul Haque said he received confirmation of four dead persons, including a woman, until 9pm.

He said ‘Riazuddin’, a Fire Service worker, was also injured during the rescue operation.

Sub-Inspector Bachchu Mia at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital police camp said two children, a woman and another person had been admitted to the burns unit.

Mahmudul Hasan, 36, who received 80 percent burns, said the fire broke out after an elevator fell.

Fifty-five percent of the body of his daughter ‘Maisha’, 10, was burnt while his eight-month-old son ‘Mustakim’ received 23 percent burns.

Uttara East Police Station Inspector Kazi Shahan said at least 50 persons were injured in the mishap.

At least 30 of them received treatment at Bangladesh Medical College and Hospital in Uttara, an official at the hospital said.

Six people were admitted to Crescent Hospital. At least 35 others were also treated there.

The hospital’s Manager Tofazzal Hossain said a woman among the injured received serious head injury.