Rescue workers from different agencies were conducting their operations carefully on Wednesday as the seven-storey commercial building in Gulistan's Siddikbazar area became vulnerable as a result of Tuesday's explosion.
The blast created panic among city dwellers as a similar explosion in another building in Dhaka's Science Laboratory area led to the death of three persons two days ago.
Moreover, a deadly explosion at an oxygen plant in Chittagong's Sitakunda killed seven while a massive fire engulfed over 2,000 shelters at three Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar within the last couple of days.
Officials, however, discarded the possibility of sabotage as they did not find any such evidence in any of the blast incidents.
From the Gulistan site -- located beside a BRTC bus counter, rescuers recovered two more bodies from under the rubble of the building. Another person died while undergoing treatment at the hospital, pushing up the death toll to 20. The deceased are Momin Uddin Sumon, 45, and Robin Hossain Shanto, 20, Musa, 45.
The bodies found on Tuesday were identified as those of Mominul Islam, 38, his wife Nodi Begum, 36, Md Suman, 21, Ishak Mridha, 35, Mansur Hossain, 40, Md Ismail, 42, Alamin, 23, Rahat, 18, Mainuddin, 50, Nazmul Hossain, 25, Obaidul Hasan Babul, 55, Abu Zafar Siddique, 34, Akriti Begum, 70, Md Idris Mir, 60, Hridoy, 20, Nurul Islam Bhuiyan, 55, and Md Siam, 19.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and officials of different government agencies have visited the spot and begun working to find the reason behind the blast.
President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed deep shock at the deaths.
Death toll to go up
The death toll may rise further since over 30 more critically-injured patients are taking treatment at different hospitals.
Till Wednesday night, 17 bodies were recovered and handed over to their families. At least 20 injured are undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital and 10 at Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic.
The condition of the patients at the institute was stated to be critical. “Among the 10 people, three are in the intensive care unit (ICU), two are on life support and the rest are in the stepdown unit (SDU),” Coordinator of the specialized facility Dr Samanta Lal Sen said.
“Some have 80%, some 90% and some have 50% burns. Everyone's airways were burnt. Therefore, we cannot say they are out of danger,” he added.
Initially, the Fire Service, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), and police suspected that gas accumulating in the basement of the building may have caused the explosion on Tuesday.
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RAB's bomb disposal unit also ruled out the possibility of an AC unit causing it. “Firefighters have been conducting rescue operations with maximum risk at Gulistan's collapsed building, which has already been declared dangerous. Equipment cannot be used under the building, rescue work has to be done by removing bricks one by one,” Fire Service Assistant Director Akhtaruzzaman said.
“Three people were missing; two of them were recovered, while another person is still missing. I will verify the information about the missing person by talking to business association leaders,” Akhtaruzzaman said.
He also said: “The area where the bodies were found was infested with flies. Later, RAB's dog squad was enlisted for assistance. With the help of the dog squad, we recovered two bodies under the floor. There was a ton of debris.”
Akhtaruzzaman further said: “The entire rescue operation has to be done manually. We can only use the lock cutter, and cannot use any other equipment.”
Risky building
Authorities have found that the building was constructed as a three-storey one some 30-40 years ago and had no approval to increase the floors. It had a kitchen in the basement but it was abandoned around eight years ago.
The Dhaka South City Corporation declared the building risky on Wednesdayand halted vehicular movement on the Bongshal-Gulistan Road until further notice.
Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) should also be blamed for the deaths in the massive explosion, Director (Zone-5) Hamidul Islam said after visiting the blast site on Wednesday. He said: "It is normal that responsibility for the deaths will fall on Rajuk."
The rescue operations were called off around 10:45pm on Wednesday as the building became risky. Four columns on the ground floor had been damaged while the roofs of the ground and first floors had collapsed due to the blast.
The blast that occurred around 4:50pm hit a bus parked in front of the counter and killed its assistant. Almost all the passengers were also injured. Another person riding a rickshaw van was also killed on the spot.
Witnesses said they heard a huge bang and saw smoke, with bricks, glass and furniture falling on the street at great speed. Many people in vehicles and pedestrians were injured at the time.
20 injured in DMCH
Brigadier General Md Nazmul Haque, director of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), yesterday said 20 people injured in the explosion in the Siddik Bazar blast incident were undergoing treatment in the burn unit.
“One of them has been kept in the intensive care unit (ICU) while the bodies of 16 people were handed over to their families on Tuesday night,” he said. “The injured have multiple wounds, including head injuries.”
Many people who were injured in the explosion received medical treatment.
The director also said 13 dead bodies arrived at the hospital on Tuesday night. They died before reaching the hospital.
“Four people died at the hospital. We had a total of 17 dead bodies. One of the bodies was taken away by family members before processing. The remaining 16 bodies were handed over to their relatives as per law,” he said.
At the time, Additional District Magistrate Akm Hedaitul Islam said that a temporary booth was set up by the office of the Deputy Commissioner before the emergency department of DMCH on Tuesday night.
Our reporter Shamima Rita and DMCH correspondent Aminul Islam Babu contributed to this report