Chittagong couple choke to death in next door fire

A couple have suffocated to death in smoke caused by a fire in Chittagong.

The fire burnt down three houses in the port city's Shahajiparha on Sunday morning, Chittagong Fire Service official Kazi Nazrul Islam told bdnews24.com.

Fire Service officials took Syed Ahmed, 30, and his wife Rina Akter, 25, to Chittagong Medical College Hospital, Nayek Md Hamid of the CMCH Police Camp said.

Hamid said the duty doctor declared the couple dead. The doctor said they died of suffocation.

Their relatives said the fire actually gutted the houses of their neighbours but the smoke choked them when they went into their house to bring academic certificates and other papers.

Mahmud, an accounts department clerk at a city corporation hospital, and Akter, a management student of Government City College, had a two-year old son 'Adiyat'.

Fire Service officials said the fire might have originated from a cooking stove.