At least 10 people died and nine were hurt on Saturday morning in a fire at TUPTUP Resto and Resort on the Inani shore in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. The three-storey bamboo-and-wood building burned out, said Syed Muhammad Morshed Hossain of the district fire service. The Times of India put the start at about 6:30 a.m.; Prothom Alo at 7:30. The cause is not established.

At 2:15 p.m. Hossain told Prothom Alo that 10 bodies had been recovered. He said more might still be inside and that rescue was continuing. About 30 people were on the site. Four or five got out. The rest were, that morning, unaccounted for. Nine injured went to Cox’s Bazar Sadar Hospital.

Resident medical officer Sabuktagin Mahmud Sohel said five had burns on about 5 percent of their bodies and were admitted. A sixth was hurt in a fall and discharged after first aid. Prothom Alo later named six burn patients in treatment, including a 31-year-old man and children. Hospital counts shifted as the day went on.

Six of the dead were identified, Prothom Alo reported: Israt Jahan Maliha, 30, and Milita Mehezabin Alvi, 23, of Banasree, Dhaka; Laila Jahan Nabila, 27, and Nafista Mim, 27, of Khilgaon; Fariha Kabir, 33, of Chuadanga; and five-year-old Faizan Ahmed. Deputy commissioner A. Mannan said DNA would be taken before bodies were handed over. Four remained unnamed at one point.

Some people suspect the kitchen. Mannan said that is only a suspicion until the inquiry finishes. He formed a five-member committee led by the additional district magistrate. Ukhiya police confirmed the site, by Marine Drive near Patuartek Beach, about 29 km from Kolatoli.

This is not a finding of negligence or arson. It is a fire-service and hospital tally, still open. The resort is gone. Identification continues.

Image: Masum-al-Hasan Rocky, Lengurbill beach, Cox’s Bazar, 5 September 2020, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The coast, not the burned resort.

Sources consulted: 10 charred to death in fire at seaside resort in Bangladesh — The Times of India; Fire breaks out at Cox’s Bazar resort, 10 dead, 6 victims identified — Prothom Alo.