Bailey Road fire: Bodies of 43 victims handed over to families

Authorities have returned the remains of 43 people, who died in a devastating blaze at a commercial building on Bailey Road, to their families.

Two bodies are still in the Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue and another at the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery as they await identification, Additional District Magistrate AKM Hedaitul Islam said on Saturday, reports bdnews24.com.

As many as 46 people died after a fire raced through the seven-storey Green Cozy Cottage, housing mostly restaurants, on a busy Thursday evening.

Bodies of 40 victims were returned to their families on Friday. Relatives collected the bodies of three more victims on Saturday.

The two bodies at Dhaka Medical College Hospital have yet to be identified. Meanwhile, the body of Avishruti Shastri, a journalist who died in the fire, has not been released from the Sheikh Hasina Burn Institute amid confusion over her identity.

Efforts to identify them through DNA testing are ongoing, said Hedaitul.