(LANKAPUVATH | COLOMBO) –An explosion ripped through a building in a crowded area of Bangladesh’s capital on Tuesday, killing at least 19 people and injuring more than 50 others, according to authorities in the South Asian country.
Mahid Uddin Khondekar, additional commissioner of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said the cause of the blast was unknown but it may have been a gas explosion.
“We are not sure, but it seems accidental,” he said, adding that the number of casualties and scale of the damage would become clearer after firefighters and rescue workers had completed their operations.
Not many people were inside the building at the time of the blast, but its location on a busy road near a market meant pedestrians were impacted, Dhaka Metropolitan Police said.
