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Raging fire sweeps Bangladesh capital slum, destroying dozens of shanties

Xinhua, December 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

A devastating fire raged through a slum in Bangladeshi capital, destroying dozens of homes early on Wednesday.

A firefighting squad managed to put off the blaze after two-hour hectic efforts.

The devastating fire destroyed some 35 shanties but there was no loss of life, a fireman said.

The fireman who did not like to be named said one of the shanties in the slum in Dhaka's downtown Mohammadpur caught fire at around 1:30 a.m. local time, which later spread to other shanties.

The firefighter said they suspected that an open kerosene lamp at a shanty might have caused the fire.

Every year fires in Dhaka slums leave thousands of people homeless. In 2008, a big fire, which engulfed some 2,000 houses in a slum area in western Dhaka, left more than 10,000 people homeless. Endit