Dhaka June 5 2022: A fire and a huge explosion have killed at least 49 people and injured hundreds more at a storage depot near the city of Chittagong, Bangladesh.
Hundreds of people had arrived to tackle the fire when a number of shipping containers exploded at the site in Sitakunda.
It is thought that chemicals were stored in some of the containers.
Industrial fires are common in Bangladesh, and are often blamed on poor safety regulations.
Many of the injured are said to be in a critical condition and the number of people killed is expected to rise.
Hospitals in the area are overwhelmed, with crowds of people waiting in hallways for treatment. Medics have appealed for blood donations and military clinics are helping to treat the injured.
The blast reportedly shattered the windows of several buildings nearby and was felt from areas as far as 4km (2.4 miles) away, according to local news outlet Prothomalo.
The town is only 40km (25 miles) from the country’s second-largest city, Chittagong, and one of the city’s hospitals has been inundated with victims. The injured include depot workers as well as fire-fighters and police, according to local media.
Several hours after the blast, fire-fighters were still attempting to extinguish the fire on Sunday morning.
About 600 people worked at the depot, the facility’s director, Mujibur Rahman, told AFP.
Fires are common in Bangladesh. Last year, at least 39 people were killed after a ferry caught fire in the south of the country. And earlier that same year, at least 52 people died in a factory fire in Rupganj near the capital, Dhaka.
Three workers were also killed in 2020 after an oil tank exploded in another container storage depot in Patenga, not far from Chittagong.
