Shopping mall fire kills seven in Dhaka

Per bdnews24.com, at least seven people died and 17 were injured after a fire broke out on the upper floors of Bangladesh's largest shopping mall, Bashundhara City, on Friday afternoon in Dhaka.

Twitter did not break this story, but @junal provided the first tweet, citing bdnews24.com's initial story on it just moments after the blaze began.

@junal (Dhaka, Bangladesh): Fire breaks out at Basundhara City http://ff.im/1umHw



The tweets came in rapidly after that, providing context from the capital city.

@mza069 (Dhaka, Bangladesh): south asia's largest shopping mall basundhara city is on fire.


@enamul (Dhaka, Bangladesh): My God! Bashundhara City is set on fire. It's flaming right now. May Allah save us!



@munim (Dhaka, Bangladesh): Bashundhara City Shopping Complex on serious fire from 18th floor and coming downwards. Shopping complex is still safe


Several twitterers noted that firefighters had trouble reaching the blaze, as their ladder did not go high enough. Helicopters were used to assist in the rescue.

@mhmbd (Dhaka, Bangladesh): Now they have the capacity to control fire up to 14th floor only. so they need helicoptor supported system as soon as possible


@mttwit (Dhaka, Bangladesh): Govt gives permission to make high-rise but don't improve the fire-service to reach those height! Poor they trying to climb 250' by ladders

Shopping mall fire kills seven in Dhaka

Shots fired in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Per Reuters, at least one person has died and six have been wounded as a result of heavy gunfire that "broke out at the headquarters of the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) in Dhaka on Wednesday."

Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh. The nation has experienced a number of military coups in its history, both failed and successful, but the reasons behind Wednesday's incident were not immediately clear, according to Reuters. However, AFP is reporting it is not a coup.

Some Bangladeshi tweets on the news have used the hashtag #bdr. The first to note the incident was @niloyphoto.

@niloyphoto (Shitscreek, Bangladesh): One of the lesser armed [Govt.] factions here in Dhaka gone nuts and took over public places and started shooting. #BDR



@TheTravInAzn has been posting pictures from near the scene.

@TheTravInAzn (Dhaka, Bangladesh): All roads closed by cops tottally empty, getting ready for national army on the way http://short.to/1a3c

@TheTravInAzn (Dhaka, Bangladesh): Looks like black smoke from some sort of large explosion? Hand granade? http://short.to/1as8

Another Twitter user in Dhaka has been tweeting developments for the last hour. He told Breaking Tweets he's been gathering information from "relatives and other sources."

@mahmudur (Dhaka, Bangladesh): #bdr The shooting started in the BDR headquarters in the city's Pilkhana area around late morning and hundreds of shots were heard from ...



With the story still developing, Twitter facilitated an international dialogue, as a man in India asked for more information.

@hiway (India): @mahmudur has any info come out as to what caused this? Is it an accident, attack or a sabotage?



@mahmudur responded with his theory on why the attack took place.

@mahmudur (Dhaka, Bangladesh): @hiway #bdr personnel demanding for to increase there salary
pm visited bdr hq day before yesterday and not get any positive feedback
today's incident is the outcome of that

@seoexpertbd also tweeted from Dhaka.

@seoexpertbd (Dhaka, Bangladesh): #BDR Mutiny is panicking people in Dhaka. Rumor for curfew. Stay safe fellow cityzens.

Shots fired in Dhaka, Bangladesh