Five of a family burnt as bike catches fire in house parking lot

Five members of a family sustained burn injuries while they were rushing through the flames that originated when a motorbike caught on fire at a building in the capital's Pallabi area last night.

The injured --Amena Begum, 47, her daughter Ridita, 16, niece Raina Akter, 20, daughter-in-law Swapna Akter, 20, and sister-in-law Shamima Akter, 43,-- were rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

They sustained burns from 2 to 35 percent, according to the hospital sources.

Saif, son of burnt Shamina, told pressmen that a motorcycle parked near the staircase on the ground floor of the five-storey building suddenly caught on fire around 8:30pm and its smoke immediately engulfed the whole building.

Panicked and suffocated by the smoke, they began to rush out of the building and hence got burnt, he added. 

Dadon Fakir, officer-in-charge of Pallabi Police Station, suspected that the motorbike might have caught fire from a short circuit in nearby electric connections.

The cause of fire will, however, be ascertained after an investigation, the OC added.