Dhaka: Several thousand shanties were gutted in a devastating fire that broke out at a slum in Mirpur in Dhaka early on Monday.

The fire originated on the south side of the slum around 4 am and soon engulfed the adjacent shanties, said Mamun Mahmud, an assistant director at Dhaka Fire Service.

On information, 21 units of firefighters rushed to the spot and brought the blaze under control around 7:22am after three and half hours of frantic efforts, said Mahfuzur Rahman, duty officer of the Fire Service and Civil Defense control room.

Mamun Mahmud said narrow roads, lack of sources of water and roads blocked with parked rickshaw-vans and huge crowd made it difficult for the firefighters to put out the fire.

Fire service officials are yet to ascertain what caused the fire.

Locals said there are 8,000 shanties in the Elias Mollah Slum at Mirpur-12 where 25,000 people were living.

Dadan Fakir, officer-in-charge of Pallabi Police Station, said more than 2,000 shanties were burnt to ashes in the fire.

Two people, who sustained burns and other injuries, were rescued and sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), Mamun added.

A three-member probe body, headed by Debashish Barman, deputy director of Dhaka division fire service, has been formed to look into the matter, he added.

Contacted, Bachchu Miah, in-charge of the DMCH police outpost, said a woman who suffered injuries in the fire was brought to the hospital and later released after primary treatment.