DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) -- A fire broke out in a congested slum outside the Bangladeshi capital Monday, killing a mother, her two children and another young girl, an official said.
The blaze gutted nearly 150 tin-and-straw huts in Jurain, a town on the southeastern outskirts of Dhaka, leaving more than 1,000 people homeless and several others injured, Fire Brigade official Anwar Hossain said.
He said fire fighters recovered the bodies of a woman and her two young children from the debris of one hut. The body of another young girl was found nearby.
Most slum dwellers _ mostly rickshaw drivers and street vendors _ were asleep when the pre-dawn fire engulfed the slum, Hossain said.
Fire fighters took about two hours to extinguish the blaze, the official said.
Hossain said police were investigating the cause of the fire.
