A firefighter inspects the wreckage of a Gulshan hotel where an air conditioner exploded yesterday. Photo: Star

A mechanic was killed and his two assistants were critically injured as the chiller of an air conditioner exploded at a Gulshan hotel yesterday afternoon.

The dead was identified as Anwar Hossain, 25.

The injured -- Sohel Rana and Kartik -- were admitted to the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Officer-in-Charge Rafiqul Islam of Gulshan Police Station said the blast had occurred while the mechanics were working with the chiller system at Hotel Six Seasons in the capital's Gulshan-2.

“We have detained five people -- three management-level staff and two others -- in this connection. But no case has been filed yet,” he told The Daily Star.

The hotel started operation about a year ago, said the OC. Police would ask Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) if the hotel authorities had approval.

Al Amin said the hotel's reservation-in-charge who was among the detainees, the blast had taken place around 3:15pm.

The chiller exploded with a loud bang destroying the windowpanes of a nearby house, owned by former communications minister Syed Abul Hossain.

Broken pieces of brass pipe and other metal parts of the blasted chiller flew far into the premise of his house. Taher, a security guard at the house, was hit in the right hand by a metal piece.

Pieces of metal also hit the windowpanes of another house.

Talking to The Daily Star, Abul Hossain said when he was a minister he tried to stop the construction of the high-rise hotel in the residential area.

He added lower-tier officials of the public works ministry and Rajuk had told him that they were helpless in this regard.

Rajuk Chairman GM Zainul Abedin Bhuiyan could not be reached for comments over the phone. After this correspondent sent him a message, he texted in reply: “In a workshop. Need to check in authorised officer's office. Will check tomorrow.”