Four members of a family suffered severe burns in Dhaka’s Rayer Bazaar after a gas leak triggered a fire.
The victims are currently receiving treatment at the National Institute of Burn & Plastic Surgery.
The incident occurred on early Monday around 3:45am at a rented ground-floor flat of the six-storey Jahanara Villa, in front of Mukti Cinema Hall on Rayer Bazaar.
The injured are Sheikh Neman, 35, his wife Pinky Akter, 32, their three-year-old son Sanaf Sheikh Maian, and Neman’s brother-in-law, Riyad Hasan Apu, 23.
Riyad Hasan Apu told reporters that all four were asleep when a sudden loud explosion woke them.
He saw the room engulfed in flames and immediately grabbed young Maian, carrying him out of the flat.
He explained that his sister Pinky had gone to the kitchen to prepare sehri. He suspects accumulated gas in the cooking area ignited when the stove was turned on, causing the blast.
Shawon Bin Rahman, resident surgeon at the National Institute of Burn & Plastic Surgery, said “Sheikh Neman sustained burns over 25 per cent of his body, Pinky 75 per cent, Maian 24 per cent, and Apu 7 per cent. Pinky’s condition is critical. Both Neman and Maian are being treated in the High Dependency Unit (HDU).”
Family members said Sheikh Neman works at a company while his wife is a housewife. Apu, who is from Mohanganj in Netrokona, is a first-year university student and had come to Dhaka on Sunday to accompany his sister Pinky back to the city.
The authorities have launched an investigation into the cause of the gas leak, while neighbours described the explosion as shocking and frightening in the quiet of the early morning.
