'Can’t breathe anymore, you are killing me': Journalist posts as media houses torched in Bangladesh; over 25 scribes rescued from burning offices

The death of July Uprising leader Sharif Osman Hadi has triggered fresh protests and violence in various parts of Bangladesh on Friday. Many demonstrators took to the streets and marched towards the newspaper offices of Prothom Alo and Daily Star and chanted slogans against what they said was 'Indian aggression'.

At midnight, the protestors vandalised and set fire to the buildings of both the Bengali language daily as well as the English-daily.

The protestors first vandalised the office of Prothom Alo and then descended upon the office of Daily Star.

They first vandalised the first two floors of the Daily Star office before setting it on fire. The blaze quickly engulfed the two floors as the night shift which was present in the building at the time rushed to the roof for refuge.

Reports state that fire services could not reach the building since the crowd had blocked the way.

Zyma Islam, a reporter of the paper took to her Facebook account to write, "I can’t breathe anymore. There’s too much smoke. I’m inside. You are killing me."

Firefighters were able to bring the fire under control at around 2am and At least 25 journalists were rescued. The Army has been deployed in front of the English daily building.

Another journalist Mahmud Hasan wrote, "All The Daily Star staff have just been successfully evacuated to a safe place, thanks to the Bangladesh Army and the Fire Service.

"Special thanks to an army major whose valor today matched that of “Major Rana,” the iconic fictional hero from Masud Rana series created by Kazi Anwar Hossain, for leading the evacuation operation."

Another journalist said, that the Daily Star office was alerted by a phone call by someone from outside. After attacking the Prothom Alo office the mob began moving towards Daily Star.

Upon receiving the warning, the newsroom staff attempted to evacuate. By then, however, the mob had reached the ground floor and began creating ruckus.