A fire at a storage unit facility has killed at least 16 people and injured more than 150, officials said on Sunday.
It broke out at a container facility on Saturday night at Sitakunda, 40 km (25 miles) from the port city of Chittagong, in Bangladesh, triggering multiple container explosions after a huge blast at the site.
Firefighters were still working to put out the fire on Sunday morning, said fire service official Faruk Hossain Shikder.
The explosion shook the neighbourhood and shattered glasses of windows of nearby houses, local residents said.
The death toll could rise as some of the injured are in critical condition, said Chittagong civil surgeon Mohammed Elias Hossain.
The injured included firefighters and policemen, he said. He urged all doctors in the district to help tackle the situation and called for emergency blood donations.
Brigadier General Main Uddin, director general of the Bangladesh fire service and civil defense, confirmed that at least five firefighters had died as a result of the fire.
Another 15 firefighters were being treated for burns, he said.
Twenty of those injured are in critical condition with burns covering 60 per cent to 90 per cent of their bodies, a doctor treating the injured told news agency AFP. About 600 people worked at the depot, according to the facility's director.
It was not immediately clear what caused the blaze. Fire service officials said they suspect it may have originated from a container of hydrogen peroxide and spread quickly to other containers.
The container facility is reportedly called BM Inland Container Depot and is a Dutch-Bangladesh joint venture.
Last year, at least 39 people were killed after a ferry caught fire near the southern town of Jhalakathi.
In July of 2021 too, at least 52 people died in a factory fire in Rupganj near the capital, Dhaka.
In 2020, three people were killed after an oil tank exploded at a container depot in Chittagong's Patenga area.
Bangladesh has been subject to intense scrutiny over the working conditions of those in low-paid jobs - particularly within the garment industry - following a series of tragic incidents.
Safety conditions have improved, but experts are concerned that accidents in other industries will continue to occur if changes are not enacted.
In 2012, more than 100 workers died after becoming trapped behind locked exits in a garment factory in Dhaka.
Then, in 2013, more than 1,100 perished when the Rana Plaza garment factory outside Dhaka collapsed.
In 2019, a fire tore through a 400-year-old area of Dhaka filled with apartments, shops and warehouses - at least 67 people were killed.
