(CNN) — At least 67 people have been killed and 40 injured after a fire tore through apartment buildings and chemical warehouses in a historic part of the Bangladesh capital Dhaka, according to Mohammed Nurul Islam, a senior official with the Home Affairs Ministry.

The latest such deadly blaze in the south Asian nation broke out Wednesday at 10:30 p.m. local time (11:30 a.m. ET) in Dhaka's Chawkbazar area, a district in old Dhaka with sprawling narrow streets and densely-packed buildings.

Police and fire officials revised down the death toll to 67 on Friday down from 78 on Thursday. Rasem Shikdar, officer with the Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defense, said there were "around 40 people" injured in the fire.

Inspector Morad Dul Islam with the Chawkbazar police said 45 bodies have been identified.

Throughout the night, firefighters battled the blaze, which is believed to have started when a fuel cylinder stored in a car exploded. </s> DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Charred buildings and vehicles are all that remain of sections of a centuries-old shopping district in Bangladesh’s capital, where a late-night fire raced through narrow alleys packed with residences, shops, restaurants and warehouses and killed dozens of people.

As the flames lit up the night, firefighters frantically doused the buildings in Dhaka’s Chawkbazar area with water.

Once morning broke and the blaze was under control, the search for the dead began.

At least 70 bodies had been recovered by Thursday afternoon and it was feared the death toll would rise as some of those injured in the fire were in critical condition. </s> Bangladesh fire LIVE Updates: At least 70 people were killed Thursday in a fire that swept a centuries-old area of Bangladesh capital Dhaka. The fire initially broke out at a chemical warehouse on the ground floor of a four-storey building named Hazi Wahed Mansion behind a mosque in Old Dhaka’s Chawkbazar area and quickly spread to nearby buildings.

The death toll from last night jumped to 70 Thursday morning. “The number could rise further as search is continuing,” Reuters quoted Julfikar Rahman, a director of the Fire Service and Civil Defence as saying. </s> DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A devastating blaze raced through a crammed slum in southeastern Bangladesh on Sunday, killing at least nine people and injuring several others, a fire official said.

The fire broke out early in the morning in the Chaktai area of Chittagong city while the slum dwellers were asleep, said the official, Jasim Uddin.

At least 200 shanty homes were gutted before firefighters brought the blaze under control, Uddin said, adding that four of the dead were from a single family.

He said the cause of the fire was not yet known and that an investigation was ordered.

Chittagong is 216 kilometers (134 miles) southeast of the capital, Dhaka. </s> A devastating blaze has killed at least nine people and injured dozens of others in Bangladesh's southeastern city of Chittagong, according to local officials.

The fire broke out early on Sunday morning and raced through a crowded slum in the port city, which lies some 216 kilometres southeast of the capital, Dhaka, fire official Jasim Uddin told the Associated Press news agency.

"While trying to control the fire, we formed a search team and the team found four dead bodies belonging to the same family," Uddin said.

At least 200 homes, mostly made up of bamboo, tin and tarpaulin, were gutted before firefighters brought the blaze under control about five hours after it started.

Uddin told AP that the cause of the fire was not yet known, and that an investigation into the incident had been ordered.

Fires regularly break out in Bangladesh's slums, where millions of people live in squalid living conditions, and accidents in the South Asian nation kill hundreds of people every year.

Rights groups have alleged some former shanty town blazes were deliberate acts of sabotage by developers seeking to free up property to construct multi-storey buildings.

Rights activist Nur Khan Liton told the AFP news agency on Sunday that fires had been used in the past "as a weapon to evict poor slum dwellers and squatters from government or private property".

There was no immediate evidence that Sunday's fire was intentional. </s> DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A fire in a high-rise office building in Bangladesh’s capital has been brought under full control with the death toll climbing to 25, fire officials said Friday.

The blaze that burned for several hours Thursday had trapped people inside the building, some shouting for help from windows on upper floors and the roof. But fire officials later said most had been rescued. By Friday morning, no smoke was visible and firefighters and forensic investigators were working at the scene.

Mostak Ahmed, a deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told The Associated Press on Friday that the death toll rose to 25 with all but one identified. Based on information provided by relatives, no one appeared to still be unaccounted for, he said. “Still we are checking, if someone comes to us we will verify,” he said.

The fire injured about 70 people, many of them now being treated at Dhaka Medical College Hospital’s burn unit.

Fire Service duty officer Forhadul Alam said hospital authorities have started handing over the bodies to their families.

The fire at the FR Tower, on a busy avenue in Dhaka’s Banani commercial district, was the latest in a country where crowding, flouted building regulations and safety norms have made deadly blazes common.

Last month, a fire in the oldest part of Dhaka, a 400-year-old area cramped with apartments, shops and warehouses, left at least 67 people dead.

In 2012, a fire at a garment factory killed at least 112 people trapped behind its locked gates. Less than six months later, another building containing garment factories collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people.

Another fire in a house illegally storing chemicals in Old Dhaka killed at least 123 people in 2010. </s> CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh: A fire tore through a slum in southern Bangladesh on Sunday (Feb 17), killing at least nine people and destroying hundreds of shanty homes, police said.

The blaze broke out in the port city of Chittagong at about 3.30am and raced through the district of bamboo, tin and tarpaulin homes, said local police chief Pranab Chowdhury.

"At least 470 shanties were destroyed by the fire. So far nine people have died. They included four members of a family," fire brigade official Hefazatul Islam told AFP.

Fires regularly break out in Bangladesh's slums, where millions live in squalid living conditions.

Rights groups have in the past alleged some shanty town blazes were deliberate acts of sabotage by developers seeking to free up property to construct multi-storey buildings.

"We have seen fires are used as a weapon to evict poor slum dwellers and squatters from government or private property," rights activist Nur Khan Liton told AFP. </s> A fire official says a devastating blaze that raced through a crammed slum in southeastern Bangladesh has left at least nine people dead and several others injured.

The official, Jasim Uddin, said the fire broke out early Sunday in the Chaktai area of Chittagong city while the slum dwellers were asleep.

Uddin says four of the dead were from a single family, and that at least 200 shanty homes were gutted before firefighters brought the blaze under control.

He says the cause of the fire is not yet known and an investigation has been ordered.

Chittagong is 216 kilometers (134 miles) southeast of the capital, Dhaka. </s> DHAKA, Bangladesh —At least 19 people have been killed and dozens more injured after a fire broke out in a commercial highrise building in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, the fire brigade said Thursday.

The fire erupted at the 19-story Faruk Rupayan Tower in Dhaka's northern Babani area, Fire Service and Civil Defense department official Rasel Sikder said.

The bodies of 13 people have been recovered from the scene, Abdus Samad Azad, another official at the department, told dpa by phone. Six others died in hospitals.

The bodies were at different hospitals in the city, he added.
A fast-moving fire has swept through a historic district of Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, killing at least 80 and wounding 50 others.