10 including Bangladeshi killed in Maldives fire

At least ten people including a Bangladesh citizen died in a fire that broke out in a garage in Male, the Maldivian capital city, early on Thursday.

A security official said the dead included nine Indians and a Bangladeshi national.

The capital of the archipelago best known as an upmarket holiday destination is one of the world’s most densely populated cities. Officials said 10 bodies were recovered from the upper floor of a building destroyed in the fire, which originated from a ground-floor vehicle repair garage.

“We have found 10 bodies,” a fire service official said, adding that it took them about four hours to put out the fire.

Maldivian political parties have criticised conditions for foreign workers.

They are thought to make up about half of Male’s 250,000-strong population and are mostly from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.