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Published : 24 Feb 2026, 11:59 PM
The death toll from a gas explosion at a Halishahar home in Chattogram has climbed to four, with another victim succumbing to burn injuries.
Ashura Akter Pakhi, 30, died at the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery in Dhaka at 10:45pm on Tuesday, hours after her husband, Samir Ahmed, 40, passed away at the same facility.
Ashura had suffered burns on 100 percent of her body.
She was the third victim from the explosion to die on Tuesday after the couple’s 16-year-old nephew, identified with a single name Shawon, died at 7am.
Shawon’s mother, Nurjahan Akter Rani, 40, was the first to die, passing away on Monday while being transported to Dhaka for advanced treatment.
The explosion occurred early Monday morning in a flat in Halishahar’s H Block.
CCTV footage showed the victims emerging from the flat with their bodies engulfed in flames following the explosion.
Neighbours said the fire broke out immediately after the loud blast.
The victims, including three children from the same family, were having the pre-dawn meal of Sehri when the incident occurred.
The injured, apart from the dead, are: Rani’s husband Sakhawat, 46; their other child Umme Aiman Snigdha, 10; Ashura’s two children Ayesha, 4, and Farhan Ahmed Anas, 6; and Sakhawat’s brother Shipon Hossain, 31.
Rani, Ashura, and Sakhawat had 100 percent of their bodies burnt, Shipon 80 percent, Aiman 38 percent, Anas 30 percent, and Ayesha 45 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 Samir recently moved in with his family for medical reasons.
The Fire Service and Civil Defence investigators suspect gas accumulated in the kitchen ignited when someone tried to light a cooker.
The blast shattered doors and windows on the second to fifth floors in the six-storey building, the Fire Service reported.
