Blast in factory kills 1, hurts 5

One employee was killed and five others injured in an explosion at a ceramic factory in Gazipur yesterday morning.
The dead is Rafiqul Islam, 28, while the injured are Mohammad Ali, 35, supervisor of the finishing unit; Mossaraf Hossain, 25, floor in-charge; team leader Selim Miah, 30; workers Abdul Haque, 34, and Akkas Ali, 24.
A nitrogen gas cylinder and an oil tanker of the printing section of Sun Power Ceramics went off with a bang at about 11:00am, injuring six staffs, said Afzal monir, executive director of the factory at Hotapara.
The six employees were admitted to the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital where Rafiqul succumbed to his injuries at around 6:30pm.
Abdul told The Daily Star at the burn unit that the explosion caused a fire that spread over the tin-shed factory. Factory staff doused the fire and rescued the workers trapped inside, but by the time the six had received severe injuries.
Samanta Lal Sen, project director of DMCH Burn and Plastic Surgery unit, told The Daily Star that the victims suffered 40 to 90 percent burns, and all the injured were in critical condition.
After the incident, panick gripped the area, and a rumour that several workers were killed spread. Agitated people gathered on the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway near the factory and traffic movement came to a halt in the area for about 15 minutes.
On information, Hotapara police went to the spot and brought the situation under control.
Kamal Hossain, sub-inspector of Joydevpur Police Station, said, the engineers of the factory primarily assumed that the explosion occurred due to mechanical glitch.