Two burnt to death in Ctg

Two fishermen were killed and four others sustained burn injuries as a fishing boat caught fire after its engine exploded in the Karnaphuli river in Chittagong city's Fishery Ghat area yesterday morning.

The dead are Md Nazim and Nur Alam of Laxmipur, said Babul Sarker, general secretary of Fishery Ghat Boat Owners' Association.   

The duo got trapped inside the boat and could not come out of it. Locals recovered the bodies from the boat in the afternoon, he added.

The injured were undergoing treatment at Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH), said Nayek Abul Bashar of CMCH Police Camp.

The condition of one of the injured, Liton, who suffered around 95 percent burn of his body, was critical, said on-duty doctors of the hospital's burn unit.

According to witnesses, the explosion occurred around 11:00am when the boat got started after loading oil from an oil tanker in the middle of the river. The spot is around 100 metres from the Fishery Ghat.

Soon after the incident, the boat caught fire and sank, said Mohammad Afsar, an eyewitness, adding that fishermen of other boats rescued the injured and took them to the CMCH.

According to the injured, around six to nine fishermen were on board at the time of the explosion.

Jasim Uddin, deputy assistant director of Fire Service and Civil Defence in Chittagong, said on information, two firefighting units from Lama Bazar Fire Station rushed to the spot around 11:15am.

However, the injured said the boat had sunk and the fire had gradually subsided before the firefighting teams could reach the spot. Locals pulled the boat ashore later.