At least 18 people were killed and over 200 others were injured in an explosion in a seven-storey building in Gulistan area in Bangladesh capital Dhaka on Tuesday afternoon.
Four of the deceased are Nazmul Hossain, 25, of Bangshal area, Md Sumon, 21, of Suritola, Mominul Islam, 38,of Islambagh and his wife Nadi Akhter, 30, all of Old Dhaka. Identities of the remaining ones could not be known.
Of the deceased people, 16 are males and two are females. The reason behind the explosion is still unknown.
Officials at Dhaka Medical College Hospital where most of the injured people were brought said that over 80 patients were admitted to the hospital and over 20 of them were critically injured.
Witnesses said that the explosion occurred on the ground floor of a market cum residential building, known as Queen Market, at about 4:50pm.
The explosion shook the nearby areas.
Due to the huge explosion, nearby Kader Mansion and Fatima Market were aksi badly damaged and glasses and furniture broke down. A number of the residents of the buildings were also injured in the incident.
Fire service rescue team leader Colonel Tazul Islam Chowdhury suspected that there might be bodies under the debris as the rescuers couldn’t reach every corners of the building until filing the report at about 11:00pm.
Fire service officials said that the building became risky due to the explosion and they couldn’t remove any rubble from the hole of the building.
President Abdul Hamid, prime minister and ruling Awami League president Sheikh Hasina and the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, in separate statements, expressed their profound shock and sorrow at the casualties over the incident.
The news of the explosion came after two deadly explosions in Dhaka and Chattogram earlier this week.
Injured rickshaw puller Md Nazir Hossain said that he was returning to Gulistan from Babubazar Bridge with a passenger. He was on traffic jam with several hundred others on different types of vehicle during the explosion.
‘I heard a sound of explosion that felt like earthquake and saw storm like dust all around,’ said Nazir who was given eight stitches on his head that was injured by falling glasses.
Different sizes of broken glasses were found scattered all around the road while the affected building’s ground floor and first floor were found rundown.
Fire service’s first rescue team members, after returning from the spot, said that they found a huge hole while boundary walls and floors broke down badly.
They said that the pillars of the explosion affected building were dangerously damaged.
The officials said that the injured people were immediately rushed and admitted to different nearby hospitals including Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Sheikh Hasina National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute and Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospital.
Dhaka Medical College Hospital director Nazmul Haque said that 18 bodies were kept in the hospital at about 11:00pm.
He said that 14 people were brought dead to the hospital and four other people died in the hospital while undergoing treatment.
The DMCH director said that the victims were brought to his hospital with explosion related burns and multiple injuries and fractures.
He said that over 60 others were being given treatment in different sections of the hospital several of them were critical.
Many other were also given first aid at the emergency department, officials at the hospital said.
Health minister Zahid Maleque, who visited DMCH after the incident, said that most of the deaths were caused due to huge bleeding for head injuries.
Swapon Sheikh, uncle of deceased Nazmul Hossain, 25, said that Nazmul was an employee at Anika Agency, a sanitary shop, was a resident of Bangshal.
The burn institute coordinator Samanta Lal Sen said that seven of the injured ones were admitted to his institute. ‘None of them is out of danger.’
A good number of people had been searching for their near and dear ones from one hospital to another.
Fire service in cooperation with Bangladesh Army, police and volunteers continued rescue operation till writing this report at about 11:30pm.
Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha chairman Md Anisur Rahman Miah said that the explosion might happen for gas stored in the underground of the building.
‘Experts were called to investigate the incident,’ he said.
One of the three owners of the building, Md Motiur Rahman, said that over 20 shops of sanitary materials are housed in the ground to second floor of the building. ‘Four other floors from the third to the sixth are used for residential purpose,’ he said.
Motiur and his two brothers live on the third floor of the building.
On March 5, at least three people were killed and nearly 70 injured as parts of a three-storey building collapsed and caught fire following an explosion near the Science Laboratory crossing in Dhaka.
On March 4, at least seven people were killed and 30 others injured in a massive explosion in an oxygen plant in Kadam Rasul area of Sitakunda upazila in Chattogram.
