by Staff Correspondent,

Dhaka – At least three people were killed after an explosion at a commercial building in Dhaka on Sunday, police and firefighters said.

The blast at the three-storey building on Mirpur Road near the Science Laboratory crossing caused fire , and front wall of its third level collapsed on the busy pavement, injuring dozens.

Police officer Ekram Ali said three of them died at a private hospital in Dhaka. The injured were transported to Dhaka Medical College Hospital and the Sheikh Hasina Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery.

The building housed clothing stores on the ground floor, men’s salon on the second and an office of a private insurance company on the third floor, he added.

The blast occurred less than 20 hours after six people were killed in an explosion at an oxygen manufacturing plant in the south-eastern port city of Chattogram.

Police and firefighters could not ascertain what actually caused the blast in Dhaka. But they suspect electric malfunction on air conditioner could cause the explosion.

Private Popular Diagnostic Center in Dhanmondi treated at least 40 people soon after they were rushed to that facility, Mosaddeque Hossain, an official at the private hospital, said.

Of them, 13 critically wounded persons, mostly suffered burns, were taken to the state-run Dhaka Medical College Hospital and the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery.

Samanto Lal Sen, the head of the burn and plastic surgery institute, said the condition of three were critical.   

The blast-ravaged building was kept under police cordon.

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