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Published : 24 Feb 2026, 11:23 AM
A teenage boy has died a day after his mother succumbed to burn injuries from a gas explosion at a flat in Chattogram’s Halishahar, raising the death toll in the incident to two.
The victim, 16-year-old Shawon, had suffered burns across 50 percent of his body, including his respiratory tract, and was undergoing treatment at Dhaka's National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery’s MHDU, according to Dr Shawon Bin Rahman, resident surgeon at the facility. He died around 7am on Tuesday.
Shawon’s mother, 40-year-old Nurjahan Akter Rani, died on Monday while being taken to Dhaka with eight other burn victims for advanced treatment.
After admitting the patients on Monday evening, Dr Shawon had said Rani died before reaching the hospital and the condition of the remaining eight was critical.
The blast occurred early on Monday morning on the second floor of a six-storey building, producing a deafening sound as flames erupted.
Neighbours said residents ran out of the apartment, many still on fire.
The victims, including three children from the same family, were having Sehri when the incident occurred.
The other victims were identified as Sakhawat Hossain, 46, alongside Ayesha, 4, Anas, 7, Aiman, 10, Shawon, 17, Shipon, 32, Sumon, 40, and Pakhi, 35.
Rani, Pakhi, and Sakhawat had 100 percent of their bodies burnt, Shipon 80 percent, Sumon and Shawon 45 percent, Aiman and Anas 25 percent, and Ayesha 20 percent.
Sakhawat, a garage owner who had rented the flat for 18 months, lived there with his wife, two children, and an employee.
His younger brother recently moved in with his family for medical reasons.
Alamgir Hossain, deputy assistant director of Chattogram Fire Service and Civil Defence (Zone-1), told bdnews24.com: “It appears gas had accumulated in the kitchen. The explosion occurred when lighting the stove, igniting a fire.”
The blast shattered doors and windows on the second to fifth floors, the Fire Service reported.
