Survivor of Gulistan explosion: 'I fell down after sudden loud sound, smoke covered whole area'

"I was buying Wood Apples from a roadside shop. Suddenly there was a loud noise. Hearing the sound, I fell. I see smoke in the whole area and no buildings are visible. All the people were running here and there.”

Kamal Ahmed, a pedestrian was saying these words to media who got injured in the explosion of Gulistan’s Fulbaria area.

The injured Kamal works in a private courier service in the capital and sustained injuries after reaching Gulistan while walking out of his office in Babubazar on Tuesday afternoon.

At least 15 people were killed and more than 140 injured in that explosion. Without providing details, fire officials said the explosion took place around 4:45pm near the Fulbaria BRTC bus counter.

Eleven firefighting units are working at the scene to carry out a rescue operation, said Rashed Bin Khaled, duty officer of the fire service control room.

A five-storey building on the south side of the BRTC counter, housing a sanitary shop on the ground floor and Brac Bank office on the remaining floors, and a seven-storey sanitary market building next to it, were affected by the blast. None of the buildings collapsed, he said.

Of the deceased, nine were male and two female.