6 hurt in explosion at salon

Six persons, including two employees of a salon, in Old Dhaka's Sankhari Bazar area were injured in a blast Saturday night as a staff lit a match stick in the closed room.
Injured Dipak Chandra Deb alias Khokan, 24, and Mohammad Akkas, 20, are employees of Joy Hairdresser Salon. The four others were pedestrians Rafiqul Islam, Sanjay Dutta, Khokan Sarker and Mishul Chandra Das.
Quoting the salon staff Khokan, Sub-inspector Abul Hassan Bhuiyan of Babubazar Police Camp said the blast had taken place as soon as Khokan had lit a match stick to smoke.
Such explosion may occur only if accumulated gas comes into contact with fire, said bomb expert of the Detective Branch of police Senior Assistant Commissioner Mohammad Sanwar Hossain yesterday.
Gas was accumulated in the shop due to the use of an air conditioner. In such case, smoking is prohibited.
The two salon staff suffered burns while the pedestrians were hurt by splinters of glass and brick.
The air-conditioned salon on the ground floor of a six-storey building was shut in the evening and the incident occurred after the two employees entered the shop around 11:15pm to sleep, Sub-inspector SM Raquibul Haque said.
The blast with a loud bang caused the shop's wall to collapse, and glass and furniture strewn all over the road. The explosion also caused fire, the SI added.
On information, fire fighters went to the spot, rescued the salon employees and admitted them to the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Four other injured were given first aid at Mitford Hospital.
Sanwar Hossain visited the spot following the incident when a team of the Criminal Investigation Department and members of other law enforcement agencies were also present.
The bomb expert told The Daily Star that they had collected samples of the blast from the spot but had not found any proof of explosives.