Seven cows were roasted alive and 10 furniture shops were gutted as a burning cattle-laden truck rammed into a furniture market at Faujdarhat of Sitakunda in Chittagong following a petrol bomb attack on early Tuesday. Fire broke out on the truck as the petrol bomb was hurled on the running truck at about 4:15am and the trucker losing control drove it through the roadside furniture market and homesteads igniting a severe fire that burned down at least 10 furniture shops and workshops on the eastern side of Dhaka-Chittagong highway.
The truck was on its way to Chittagong from a northern district carrying 26 cows and seven of them were roasted alive.
Chittagong Fire Service and Civil Defence deputy director Md Jashim Uddin said that seven of 26 cows were burnt to death in the fire.
Four furniture workshops, five show rooms and one aluminium shop were damaged in the fire and the flames were doused at about 9:00am by six fire fighting units, said Jashim.
He said that a three-member committee would be formed to assess the damage.
Sitakunda police said that two more trucks were also set on fire hours before the arson attack in the same area.
-With New Age input
