DHAKA: At least five people were killed, and dozens were wounded in an explosion at an oxygen plant outside Bangladesh’s port city of Chittagong on Saturday, officials said.
The blast rocked the oxygen plant of the Sheema steel re-rolling mill in the industrial town of Sitakunda at around 4:30 pm (1030 GMT), trapping “many workers” inside the plant, local police chief Tofael Ahmed said.
“The fire brigade has doused the fire, and they rescued the people from the plant,” he added.
District administrator Mohammad Fakhruzzaman said that at least five people were killed in the explosion, and another 25 were wounded.
Blast shock residents
Witness Muslim Uddin said the explosion was “so loud and devastating” that it shook all residential houses in the area.
“Glass in several houses was shattered. The entire area went dark,” he told the AFP news agency.
The government has ordered a probe into the explosion.
Industrial explosions and fires are common in Bangladesh, where safety enforcement by factory authorities is poor.
In June last year, a fire and subsequent explosions at a container depot in the same industrial town left more than 50 people dead.
