It was not from space, after all

The iron-like object which fell on a village at Bhatiyari union of Sitakunda on Saturday afternoon, is part of a crane that was being used to drag fragments of a larger barge crane weighing 5,000 tonnes.

Dismantling large cranes requires proper know-how but the yard authority did not know how to handle it, causing wire and hook of the other crane to detach and projectile to nearby areas. At least three pieces fell on three different areas, said sources inside the ship breaking yard.

Mohammad Ali, general secretary of Bangladesh Metal Workers Federation, claimed that the incident originated from Ferdous Steel Corporation.

Ali, quoting his network of workers at ship breaking yards, said one of the three parts severed the power line at a nearby area in Jahajghata. The power line was restored yesterday evening.

Another part fell on a coconut tree and the heaviest part fell two kilometres away at Mitrapara of Bhatiyari union, creating a 15-feet deep hole, he said.

Mohammad Ali Shahin, coordinator of Young Power for Social Action, an NGO that works to ensure safety at shipyards, told The Daily Star that the yard does not have the technical knowledge to operate power cranes.

This requires technical know-how, otherwise it can cause serious damage, he said.

Golam Kibria, village police of Bhatiyari union told The Daily Star that the shipyard is two kilometres away from where the object fell. Sometimes tiny pieces of metal from shipyard ends up in nearby areas.

Milton Roy, Sitakunda upazila nirbarhi officer, told The Daily Star that they were considering that it came from the shipyard of Ferdous Steel Corporation.

The yard authority was dismantling a ship close to the time the object fell, he said.

Earlier the iron-like object weighing around 30kg led to a lot of speculation among locals.

Bomb disposal unit along with local police recovered the silver coloured object from the hole.

Firoj Hossen Molla, officer-in-charge of Sitakunda police told The Daily Star that they will study the object to determine what it is exactly.

Ferdous Wahid, director of Ferdous Steel Corporation told The Daily Star that they brought a barge crane to be dismantled at their shipyard.

He said they announced on loudspeaker that they will dismantle a crane boom, which weighs around 300 tons. "We evacuated some people as well," he said.

"There was a bang when the crane boom landed from a height of at least 250 feet," he added.

He said he can't say where the smaller pieces which fell nearby came from.

"There was at least 30 minutes between the large piece of metal landing at Mitrapra and the time of our dismantling of the crane boom," he claimed, adding that there is no connection between these two incidents either.