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Fire death toll rises to 69 in Bangladesh

A huge fire that broke out in a building in an old part of Bangladeshi capital Dhaka is mostly under control after killing at least 69 people.

The blaze broke out on Wednesday and spread to other nearby buildings. It was mostly under control early on Thursday after more than nine hours of firefighter efforts, with fire officials now stating at least 69 people are dead.

About 200 people are working to recover bodies from the wreckage.

"Sixty-nine bodies were recovered so far," Kamrul Hasan, duty officer at the control room of the Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence, told DPA.

It was not immediately clear what caused the fire at the building in the centuries-old Chawkbazar area of Dhaka.

The Chawkbazar area is crammed with buildings separated by narrow alleys. The neighbourhood is a mix of residential and commercial, with buildings that commonly have shops, restaurants or warehouses on ground floors.

Some floors of the destroyed buildings had chemicals and plastic in storage.

Building safety regulations are rarely followed in impoverished Bangladesh, where accidents kill hundreds every year.

The 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse killed more than 1100 garment workers.

Witnesses told local TV many gas cylinders stored in the buildings continued to explode one after another. They said the fire also set off explosions in fuel tanks of some of the vehicles that got stuck in traffic in front.