Live Correspondent: At least 16 people were killed and over 100 others were injured in an explosion in a five-storey building in Gulistan area in Bangladesh capital Dhaka on Tuesday afternoon. Identities of the deceased – 14 males and two females – could not be known immediately. The news of the explosion came after two deadly explosions in Dhaka and Chattogram earlier this week.

Fire Service and Civil Defence headquarters’ control room duty officer Khaleda Yesmin in Dhaka said that an explosion occurred in a building near the BRTC bus counter at Phulbaria intersection of Gulistan at about 4:50pm on Tuesday.

The five-storey building houses sanitary shops on the ground floor and the office of a private bank on the other four floors, she said. Five firefighting and rescue units rushed to the spot to conduct rescue operation, she said. The reason behid the fire could not be known immediately.

Dhaka Medical College Hospital police outpost in-charge Bachchu Mia said that a total of 16 bodies were brought to the hospital from the spot and over 75 injured people, including several critically injured, were brought to the hospital until 7:15pm.

Witnesses said that the explosion blew off walls of the building and the debris fell on the adjacent footpath and road while several rickshaw-van puller, pedestrians, small vehicles and passengers of a bus who had been passing by the place became injured.

They said that the locals rushed the spot immediately and began to rescue the victims and injured ones were immediately being taken to hospitals by small pick-up vans and the vehicles that rushed to the spot immediately.

The firefighting rescuers also rushed to the spot within a few minutes and began their rescue operation. Sounds of people crying inside the building could be heard after the explosion, witnesses said.

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.

Dhaka, 07 March (campuslive24.com)//BSC