DHAKA, Bangladesh (Reuters) – At least 14 people were killed and dozens injured in an explosion at a seven-story commercial building in the Bangladesh capital on Tuesday, officials said.
The blast occurred in Gulistan, a busy commercial district in Dhaka, Fire Department official Rashed bin Khaled said by phone.
The building had several stores selling plumbing supplies and household items, and his first second floor was badly damaged, according to the fire department.
The cause of the explosion was initially unknown.
Khaled said at least he had 11 firefighters working at the blast site. Bach Mia, a police officer at the state-run Dhaka Medical College Hospital, said more than 50 people were taken to the hospital for treatment, of which at least 14 died.
Bangladesh has a history of fires and industrial disasters, including factory fires and workers trapped. Watch groups have accused corruption and lax enforcement.
Massive fires erupted in overcrowded Rohingya refugee camps in southern Bangladesh on Sunday, leaving thousands homeless. No casualties have been reported at the Barhari camp in Cox’s Bazar district. In 2012, about 117 workers died after being trapped behind locked exits at a garment factory in Dhaka.
The following year, the country’s worst industrial disaster occurred when the Rana Plaza garment factory outside Dhaka collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people.
In 2019, a fire at his 400-year-old house, shop and warehouse in Dhaka’s oldest district killed at least 67 people. In 2010, at least 123 people died in a fire in a house illegally storing chemicals in the old city of Dhaka.
In 2021, at least 52 people were killed in a fire at a food and beverage factory on the outskirts of Dhaka. Many of them were trapped inside illegally locked doors. Last year, a fire at a container warehouse near Chittagong’s main port killed at least 41 people, including nine firefighters, and injured more than 100 others.
