Raging blaze sweeps Bangladesh slum

A massive fire on Wednesday swept through one of the largest slums here, however, no casualties have so far been reported.

At least 20 fire fighting units rushed to the spot to fight the flames in the Rupnagar slum, fire department duty officer Russel Shikder told Xinhua.

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He said the fire started at the slum at around 9:45 a.m. (local time) and it soon engulfed the shanties. The blaze has not been brought under control as of 11:10 a.m. (local time).

The densely populated Rupnagar slum in Dhaka’s Mirpur area shelters hundreds of thousands of poor residents.

Shikder said the exact cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained.

According to the firefighting officer, most of the shanties made of scrap sheet iron, plastic and cardboard were destroyed fully or partially in the fire.

Fires are common in Dhaka slums where hundreds of thousands of people are crammed in shacks along rail and waterways.

In Dhaka, fires leave thousands of slum dwellers homeless every year.