Bangladesh

Ten killed as fire sweeps through a Cox's Bazar beach resort

The blaze at Tuptup Resort in Inani killed six members of one family and injured six others. Officials say the resort had no fire licence and no environmental clearance.

ScrollBeat DeskPublished: 18 Oct 2026, 10:44

File photo of a beach resort in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Moheen Reeyad, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

At least 10 people were killed and six others injured when a fire broke out at the Tuptup Resort and Restaurant in Inani, on Cox's Bazar's Marine Drive road, on Saturday morning.

Six of the dead belonged to the same family, including a five-year-old boy, officials said. The victims were tourists who had gone to the coast for a holiday.

Panna Akter, the Ukhia upazila nirbahi officer, said 10 bodies had been recovered and six people were injured, and that 18 tourists were staying at the resort when the fire started. Bengali-language media reported that about 30 people were at the property at the time. The injured were first taken to the Ukhia upazila health complex and later moved to Cox's Bazar district hospital.

The fire service said it received the alarm at about 7:25am and that crews from the Ukhia station, 18 kilometres away, reached the scene at 8:00am and brought the blaze under control by 8:15am. Two units fought the fire, and the first six bodies were recovered from the site.

Syed Mohammad Morshed Hossain, deputy assistant director of the Cox's Bazar Fire Service, said the resort had no fire licence and none of the required equipment, including portable extinguishers, alarms, hose pipes or a fire safety plan. He said the management had been warned in June about safety violations but took no action, and that the wooden structures and strong coastal winds helped the flames spread.

Khandaker Mahmud Pasha, deputy director of the Department of Environment's Cox's Bazar office, said no environmental clearance had been issued to the establishment. Officials said the resort had been built only seven or eight months earlier and that its ownership was disputed.

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Dozens of orangutans rescued as Indonesian fires blanket Southeast Asia

Conservation teams have evacuated at least 51 orangutans in West Kalimantan since August as the region's worst haze in a decade closes schools and disrupts thousands of flights.

ScrollBeat Desk18 Oct 2026, 12:02Open this article

A Bornean orangutan in Kalimantan, Indonesia (file photo). Conservation teams have evacuated dozens of orangutans from fires in the province since August 2026. Photo: Ridwan0810 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Ridwan0810, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Conservation teams in Indonesia have rescued dozens of critically endangered orangutans in recent weeks as wildfires burn across Borneo and Sumatra and send toxic haze across Southeast Asia.

The West Kalimantan conservation agency and the Indonesian non-profit YIARI said a team evacuated 51 orangutans from sites in the province between 6 August and 19 October. Figures from Indonesia's forestry ministry suggested the number rescued in Kalimantan in recent months could be as high as 96, though officials could not immediately clarify the total.

The latest rescue came on Saturday, when three conservation agencies evacuated a 20-year-old male orangutan in Hampangen village in Central Kalimantan, on Borneo. The agencies said the animal was sedated, given a medical examination and taken to a rehabilitation centre.

The fires have produced a months-long pollution spell that has closed schools, driven up respiratory illness in people and animals, and restricted outdoor activity in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and East Timor.

Air-quality monitors again ranked Singapore and Kuala Lumpur among the world's five most polluted major cities on Sunday. The BBC reported this month that Indonesia is having its worst wildfire season in a decade, with more than a million fire hotspots recorded and about 900,000 hectares burned, worsened by an unusually strong El Nino.

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Indonesia's transport ministry said about 2,400 flights have been affected by the haze since mid-August. 'Haze reduces visibility around airports, which can lead to delays, disruptions, and even flight cancellations,' it said, adding that safety comes first in every operational decision.

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NEXT STORY Bangladesh

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman presents National Standard to seven army units

The units received the honour at a ceremony at Savar Cantonment, where the prime minister stressed discipline, modernisation and public trust.

ScrollBeat Desk18 Oct 2026, 11:58Open this article

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman addressing an Armed Forces programme at Dhaka Cantonment on 12 April 2026 (file photo). Photo: Press Information Department, Government of Bangladesh, via Wikimedia Commons. Press Information Department (PID), Government of Bangladesh, via Wikimedia Commons

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman presented the National Standard to seven units of the Bangladesh Army at Savar Cantonment on Sunday, recognising their contribution to professional excellence and their roles in wartime and peacetime.

The units honoured this year were the President Guard Regiment, 7 Field Regiment Artillery, 32 Field Regiment Artillery, 25 Air Defence Regiment, 9 Engineer Battalion, 56 East Bengal Regiment and 57 East Bengal Regiment. The ceremony was organised by the 9th Infantry Division.

The prime minister was given an armed salute on arrival. Chief of Army Staff General Waker-Uz-Zaman, cabinet ministers and advisers, members of the diplomatic corps, and serving and former military officers attended.

In his address, Tarique Rahman said the strength of an armed force did not lie only in its weapons, equipment or numbers, but in discipline, skill, leadership, morality, training and public trust. He told officers and soldiers to remain committed to the Constitution, the law, military regulations and humanitarian values.

He said modern warfare increasingly involves cyberspace, outer space, drones, artificial intelligence, electronic warfare and information-based capabilities, and that Bangladesh's defence preparedness had to keep pace. The government, he added, was working to make the forces more technology-driven, skilled and professional, and to build a domestic defence industry for weapons and equipment.

Technology could never replace people, the prime minister said, calling for an integrated defence capability in which the Army, Navy and Air Force could act together when needed.

On welfare, he said the government was giving weight to housing, healthcare, education, training and post-retirement security for military personnel. Salaries and allowances had been raised by 100 to 138 percent under the National Pay Scale, and the 'One Rank, One Pension' system was being implemented, he said.

Tarique Rahman said the army's history was bound up with the country's independence, recalling the role of Ziaur Rahman, then deputy commander of the Eighth East Bengal Regiment, in Chattogram after the crackdown of 25 March 1971 and his declaration of independence from Kalurghat radio the following week.

He said protecting national interests, sovereignty and dignity would remain a core commitment, and that Bangladesh wanted to strengthen friendship and cooperation with all countries on the basis of mutual respect and equality.