Dhaka, Nov 17 (UNI) At least seven people have died after a gas pipeline exploded in a Chattrogram’s
Pahtarghata.
The incident took place on the ground floor of a building in Patharghata Brick Field Road on Sunday morning, said Kotwali Police Station OC Md Mohsin.
The authorities subsequently took 19 people to Chattogram Medical College Hospital for treatment, among whom, seven were pronounced dead by doctors, said the OC.
Pedestrians also suffered injuries after the outer walls of the building collapsed during the explosion. A shop just across from the building was also damaged in the blast.
The gas riser of the building is located beside the boundary wall on the ground floor of the structure where the explosion occurred, Purnachandra Mutsuddi, deputy director of Chattogram Fire Service and Civil Defence, told UNI.
Maybe there was a problem with the gas riser. Perhaps gas had accumulated there as a result of a leak. Someone may have lit a fire in the house which triggered the explosion.
“The explosion occurred upon lighting a matchstick in the prayer room,” said Hasan Shahriar Kabir, the divisional director of Chattogram health directorate, citing injured residents Shandhya Nath and Arpita Nath.
The current owners of the four-storey building, Amal Barua and Titu Barua, live on the top floor.
The explosion shook up the entire building, said third-floor resident and school teacher Anjan Kanti Das, adding that his windows were shattered while items in his house fell on the floor.
“Pieces of the boundary wall also hit pedestrians after the explosion. We have sent quite a few people to the hospital, including pedestrians,” said Ismail Bali, councillor of Patharghata's ward no 34.
Priya Das and her three-year-old daughter, who live next door, were also injured in the blast.
I was lying down with my daughter. Suddenly there was a big bang and bricks and trash flew inside our room. My daughter suffered an injury to her head and I’m hurt too,” she told UNI.
Police could only identify two of the dead but the victims include two women, four men and a teenage boy, said OC Mohsin.
Annie Barua, principal of Meher Ati Government Primary School, died when a wall caved in on her as she was leaving the house in the morning. Her husband Palash Barua, a mechanical engineer, was seen mourning her death at the hospital.
Construction worker Nurul Islam, 31, had stopped to buy betel leaves from a shop on his way to work on a building site at Patharghata's Brickfield Road. But died after being struck by chunks of brick sent flying by the blast, said shopkeeper Manjur Hossain, who was also injured in the incident.
Chattogram City Corporation Mayor AJM Nasir Uddin later visited the scene, and said the authorities will pay the funeral expenses for the dead. The city corporation will also bear the medical expenses of those injured in the explosion, he added.
A five-strong panel headed by Additional Deputy Commissioner AJM Shariful Hasan has been formed to investigate the incident, said Chattogram's Deputy Commissioner Md Iliyas Hossain.
The district administration provided Tk 20,000 in assistance to the families of each of the dead, he added.
UNI MAZ ASN 1929