Five of the seven people, who sustained burn injuries in an explosion aboard an oil tanker vessel on the Sugandha River in Jhalakathi, died on Tuesday while undergoing treatment in the capital.
Dr Samanta Lal Sen, chief coordinator of the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery, confirmed the development to Dhaka Tribune.
The deceased are Shahid Talukder, 40, Mehedi Hasan, 28, Md Ripon, 40, Md Rony, 27, and Ashikur Rahman, 25.
“All of them died between the morning and the evening on Tuesday due to several organ failures, followed by over 70% burn injuries,” he added.
On Tuesday, an explosion took place at the Padma Oil Company depot situated on the south bank of the Sugandha River that left its captain Kamrul Islam dead and seven others injured.
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Two of the injured were released after undergoing primary treatment while the five others were shifted to Dhaka.
The OT Shagor Nandini-3, loaded with 1.1 million litres of petrol and diesel from Chittagong, had reached the depot in Jhalakathi on Wednesday.
One of the Injured, Rubel, said the crew members had called mechanics to fix the issue with the pipeline that had been preventing them from unloading diesel at the depot on Friday morning.
At the time, a sudden explosion in the pipeline caused the ship to catch fire, leaving most of the 13 crew members onboard burnt, he added.