Cox's Bazar– At least ten tourists have been killed in a fire at a beachfront resort in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh's main tourist destination, on Saturday.

The fire broke out at Tuptup Restro and Resort at Patuartek beach in Inani in the morning and gutted the entire facility, housed in a two-storey wooden-framed building, said Dolon Acharya, an official at the Fire Service and Civil Defence department.

He said firefighters pulled the bodies from inside the debris after three fire engines took more than two hours to douse the flames.

The scene is located nearly 30 kilometers south of the Cox's Bazar district headquarters and more than 325 kilometers south-east of the capital Dhaka.

A spokesperson for the Fire Service and Civil Defence said police released the identities of the deceased. They are Israt Jahan Maliha (30), Milita Mehjabin Alvi (23), Layla Jahan Nabila (27), Nasfista Meem (27), Fariha Kabir (33), and Faizan Ahmmed (5), said Talha Bin Jasim of the department.

Four of them had travelled from Dhaka and the two others from Chuadanga, he said, adding that six other people wounded in the fire were treated at a hospital in Ukhiya.

Syed Morshed Hossain, an official at the Cox’s Bazar fire service unit, said in the afternoon that four other bodies were found in the debris. The identity of those deceased could not be determined as they burnt beyond identification.

According to the resort's website, it operated as a popular beachfront retreat located directly along the scenic Marine Drive between Cox's Bazar and Teknaf, the southernmost point of Bangladesh. It offered eco-style accommodations with panoramic views of both the sea and the hills, it added.

Local residents say the resort officials went into hiding after the fire incident. None of them could be contacted by phone.

They presume the fire might have originated at a stove in the resort's kitchen, but firefighters could not immediately ascertain the exact cause of the accident.

District administrator (Deputy Commissioner) M A Mannan said an investigation was launched to determine the cause of the fire.

Meanwhile, at a news conference in Dhaka, chief of the Fire Service and Civil Defence department, Sultanul Afreen Junaid, said that the resort owners did not obtain permission from any government agency to construct the building. The resort also lacked firefighting mechanism, he told reporters.

Junaid called upon all other resorts in the tourist district to comply with fire safety to run their establishment. He also promised to set up a new fire station in Inani.

Cox's Bazar is famous for its longest unbroken sandy beach worldwide on the bank of the Bay of Bengal. It has become Bangladesh's main tourist attraction. More than 3 million people, mostly domestic travelers, visit the popular destinations in Cox's Bazar, which offer a panoramic view with the sea on one side and the hills on the other.