Bangladesh: 16 killed, over 100 injured in multi-storey building explosion in Dhaka

A total of 16 people including two women were killed and more than 100 were injured in an explosion at a six-storey building near a BRTC bus counter in Dhaka’s Gulistan on Tuesday afternoon, Bangladesh-based Dhaka Tribune reported.
The death toll from the explosion in Dhaka’s Gulistan street is likely to increase.
According to Dhaka Tribune, eleven firefighting units were at the scene, but they had to halt their rescue efforts in the evening as one of the affected buildings had developed cracks.
The Rapid Action Battalion’s bomb disposal unit also rushed to the spot to inspect the buildings.
According to officials, the explosion happened in the Alubazar area of Fulbaria in the capital.
The blast affected two buildings near the BRTC bus counter, the six-storey building and another four-storey sanitary market, which houses a branch of Brac Bank.
Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) police outpost Inspector Bacchu Miah said, twenty of the injured were taken to the DMCH. He said that all of them are 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 but said they will investigate that possibility. People willing to donate blood for the injured have been asked to go to DMCH.
Witnesses said many people are feared trapped in the basements of the buildings.