Nearly 80 students of a religious school near the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka have been injured after a fire broke out in one of the multi-story buildings of the facility, physicians and firefighters said on Tuesday.
The fire broke out in the library section of the five-storey Jamia Ashrafia Madrassah building in the early hours of Tuesday in Fatullah of Narayanganj district, said Mohammad Jahangir Alam, an official at the Fire Service and Civil Defence department.
The firefighters took more than two hours to douse the flames, he said.
The scene is located nearly 20 kilometers south-east of the capital, Dhaka.
Seventy-nine students suffering from breathing difficulties and damaged respiratory tracts due to the thick smoke from the fire have been brought to the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery.
Of them, 16 have been released after being given primary treatment while three others were in critical condition, said Sultan Mahmud Sikder, a resident physician at the institute.
The respiratory tracts of those admitted were severely damaged as a result of breathing while trapped in the dense smoke during the fire, he added.
The reason behind the fire could not be determined immediately. But firefighters suspect an electrical malfunction might have caused the blaze.
Meanwhile, State Minister for Health and Family Welfare M A Muhit said arrangements have been made to provide free treatment to the students injured in the fire incident.
Two medical boards have already been formed to look after those undergoing treatment, and all kinds of tests and investigations they require have been made free, Muhit said.
He made the remarks while visiting the students admitted at the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery.
