At least seven people were killed and several hundred injured in a massive explosion in a three-storey building at Moghbazar in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka Sunday evening.

‘Seven people died so far and 50 others were admitted to different hospitals in the city with injuries caused by the explosion,’ said Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Md Shafiqul Islam after visiting the spot in the late evening.

‘Among the deceased people, one is a child. We have rescued over 50 people from the house and the adjacent main road and sent them to hospitals,’ said the metropolitan police’s deputy commissioner for Ramna division Shazzadur Rahman.

The names of the deceased could not be known immediately.

An official of Dhaka Community Medical College Hospital at Moghbazar said that two of the injured people died in the hospital and around 300 injured were treated there.

The hospital authorities sent 37 injured people to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Many of the injured people were also sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital from the spot and two of them have died in the hospital till the filing of the report at 10:00pm.

The police officer, however, could not immediately confirm the reason of the explosion that took place at about 7:30pm in the ground floor of the three-storey building, opposite to the Moghbazar branch of Aarong, on Shaheed Sangbadik Selina Parvin Road.

Local people also rescued many of the injured immediately after the explosion, witnesses said.

Dhaka Medical College Hospital police outpost in-charge inspector Bachchu Mia at about 9:30pm said that a total of 41 injured people were brought to the hospital and 10 others, all critically injured, were taken to Sheikh Hasina National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institure and one of them died there.

Many of the injured people were also rushed to Rushmono Specialised Hospital at Moghbazar and Combined Military Hospital, the police said.

A witness, Nuruddin Topu, said that a massive explosion took place inside Shawrma House, a restaurant, on the ground floor of the three-storey building.

‘It was like a bang. A massive sound shattered glasses of many adjacent multi-storey buildings and wrecked several buses and other vehicles,’ he said.

Fire Service deputy director Debasis Bardhan said that 14 units of the fire service went to the spot to conduct a rescue operation.

‘We are conducting the rescue operation and we are now sure that the explosion happened in the ground floor. Almost half of the building has already collapsed,’ said a fire service official on the spot.

He said that the incident might have taken place due to gas line explosion but they were not ruling out any suspicions of subversive activities.

An investigation team will be formed and it would fine out the actual causes, he said.

The ground floor houses two business outlets — Bengal Meat and Sharma House.

Witnesses and rescuers said that bricks and debris fell on the adjacent road filled with vehicles and passers-by, some of whom sustained injuries.

‘The explosion shook Moghbazar Wireless Grate area. I became terrified. It cannot be described in words,’ said Abdul Ahad, a resident of the area who rescued an injured man and rushed him to the nearby Community Medical College Hospital.