Bodies of 22 people who died in the Chittagong container depot fire were identified and handed over to their families till Monday morning.
Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) authorities handed over the bodies from Sunday night to 10 am this morning, confirmed the CMCH Police Outpost Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Alauddin Talukdar, the Dhaka Tribune reported.
Chittagong Deputy Commissioner, Mohammed Mominur Rahman said, "Among the 49 victims of the fire, 41 bodies were at CMCH. The remaining eight bodies are at different hospitals in the city."
He said that the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Monday morning started collecting DNA samples from relatives of the victims who died in the fire.
"If samples are matched, the remaining bodies will be handed," the Dhaka Tribune quoted him as saying.
A forensic team led by Chittagong Crime Investigation Department (CID) AdditionalSuperintendent of Police (ASP), Jahangir Alam set up a booth in front of the CMCH on Monday to cross-match DNA samples of unidentified victims of the Sitakunda fire, the Dhaka Tribune reported.
ASP Jahangir Alam said samples were being collected from parents, siblings, or any two of the children of the unidentified victims.
At least 49 people have been killed so far and over 450 were injured in the fire caused by an explosion at a private Inland Container Depot (ICD) in Sitakunda Upazila.
The fire broke out at BM Container Depot in the Kadamrasul area of the Upazila on Saturday night, reported Dhaka Tribune.
As per the sources, the explosion shook the neighborhood and shattered glasses of windows of nearby houses. Earlier, Chittagong Fire Service and Civil Defense Assistant Director Md Faruk Hossain Sikdar had said, "Around 19 firefighting units are working to douse the blaze and six ambulances are also available on the spot."
Police, Fire Service, and local sources said the fire broke out inside BM Container Depot's loading point around 9 pm.
Around 11:45 pm, there was a massive explosion and the fire spread from one container to another due to the presence of chemicals in one of the containers.
The sources added that the explosion shook the neighborhood and shattered glass windows of nearby houses.
Chittagong Fire Service and Civil Defense Assistant Director Md Faruk Hossain Sikdar said, "Around 19 firefighting units are working to douse the blaze and six ambulances are also available on the spot."
BM Container Depot is set up as an inland container depot that has been operating since May 2011.
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