Five members of a family, including a one-and-a-half-year-old girl, suffered critical burn injuries in a suspected gas explosion at their home in the capital's Sutrapur early Friday.
According to family members, the blast occurred around 1:30am on the ground floor of a five-storey building in the Kagojitola area.
The injured were identified as Ripon, 40, a van-puller; his wife Chandni, 35; their sons Tamim, 18, and Rokon, 14; and their daughter Ayesha, aged one and a half.
All were asleep when the explosion tore through their flat, said Ripon's uncle Zakir Hossain.
He suspected the blast was caused by accumulated gas leaking into the house overnight.
"Furniture and other household items were also damaged in the fire," he added.
Neighbours rushed to the scene, rescued the victims, and took them to the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery.
Shawon Bin Rahman, a resident surgeon at the hospital's emergency unit, said Ripon suffered 60 percent burns, Chandni 45 percent, Tamim 42 percent, Rokon 60 percent, and Ayesha 63 percent.
"All of them have suffered burns to their respiratory tracts as well. Their conditions are critical," the doctor said.
Earlier on Thursday, a woman and her husband died, while their three-year-old daughter sustained burn injuries in a suspected gas explosion at their residence in Jatrabari.
