At least 15 people, including two women, were killed and more than 100 were injured in an explosion at a five-storey building near a BRTC bus counter in the capital's Gulistan on Tuesday afternoon, with the death toll likely to increase.
Eleven firefighting units are at the scene carrying out their rescue efforts, Rashed Bin Khaled, duty officer of the fire service control room, said.
The Rapid Action Battalion's bomb disposal unit is heading to the spot to inspect the buildings.
Officials said the explosion happened in the Alubazar area of Fulbaria in the capital.
Twenty of the injured were taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, said DMCH police outpost Inspector Bacchu Miah, adding that all of them were receiving treatment at the hospital's emergency unit.
The cause of the explosion could not be known immediately.
The police believe it was an accident, not a case of sabotage.
People willing to donate blood for the injured have been asked to go to DMCH.
The blast affected two buildings near the BRTC bus counter: the five-storey building and another seven-storey sanitary market, which houses a branch of Brac Bank.
Witnesses said many people are feared trapped in the basements of the buildings.
