(CNN) An explosion pierced a building in a crowded area of the Bangladesh 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 could have been a gas blast.
“We’re not sure, but it appears to be a coincidence,” he said, adding that the number of casualties and the extent of the damage would become clearer after firefighters and rescue workers completed their operations.
There weren’t many people in the building at the time of the blast, but its location on a busy street near a market meant pedestrians were affected, Dhaka Municipal Police said.
Firefighters and rescue workers at the scene of an explosion in Dhaka, Bangladesh on March 7.
Photos show firefighters and rescue workers conducting search and rescue operations after dark. The damaged building has crumbling and missing walls; Some units appear to have collapsed completely and debris covers the ground outside. Relatives of the victims mourn outside.
According to firefighter Dinomoni Sharma, 22 people remain in the hospital as of Wednesday morning.
Sharma said the Bangladeshi Army will work to secure what is left of the building on Wednesday and an investigation is being conducted into what caused the blast.
Firefighters work at the crime scene in Dhaka on March 7, 2023.
The blast follows two other deadly blasts in the country last weekend; On Sunday, three people were killed in a suspected gas explosion in Dhaka, a densely populated city of over 23 million people.
On Saturday, seven people were killed and several others injured when a fire broke out after an explosion at an oxygen plant in southeast Bangladesh.
Additional coverage from Portal.