At least 14 people have been killed and dozens injured in an explosion that took place inside a seven-story building.
The incident took place in Gulistan which is a busy commercial area of Dhaka in Bangladesh, a fire department official named Rashed bin Khaled said by phone.
The cause of the blast was unclear, the official said, adding that the death toll could rise as rescue operations were ongoing.
According to India Today, injured people were rushed to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).
DMCH Director Brig Gen Md Nazmul Haque said around 120 people had sustained injuries in the explosion.
Inside the building were several stores selling plumbing products and household items.
The first two floors of the commercial were badly damaged, according to fire officials.
Rashed bin Khaled said at least 11 fire department teams were at the scene of the explosion.
More than 50 people were taken there for treatment, and at least 14 have died shared Bacchu Mia, a police official at the state-run Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
“Two of the dead are women. The rest are injured and being treated,” Bacchu Mia said while a fire services spokesperson said that no fire broke out in the building.
The blast also damaged a bus standing on the opposite side of the road, reports said.
More than 100 people were treated for head wounds, fractures and other injuries at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, reports said.
Historically Bangladesh has a series of industrial disasters, including factories catching fire with workers trapped inside. Groups monitoring the disasters blame the corruption and lax enforcement by the government.
In 2012, 117 workers died and over 200 people were injured whilst being trapped behind a locked exit in garment factory in Dhaka, making it the deadliest factory fire in the nation's history.
India's worst industrial disaster occurred the following year, when the Rana Plaza garment factory outside Dhaka collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people.
In 2019, a blaze ripped through a 400-year-old area cramped with apartments, shops and warehouses in the oldest part of Dhaka and killed at least 67 people. Another fire in Old Dhaka in a house illegally storing chemicals killed at least 123 people in 2010.
In 2021, a fire at a food and beverage factory outside Dhaka killed at least 52 people, many of whom were trapped inside by an illegally locked door.
Last year, a fire at a shipping container storage depot near the country's main Chittagong Seaport killed at least 41 people, including nine firefighters, and injured more than 100 others.
These disasters, are among the worst industrial accidents on record, and have awoke the world to the poor labour conditions faced by workers in the ready-made garment sector in Bangladesh.
