‘It felt like an earthquake’

The explosion was so powerful that it felt like the earth was trembling, Safayet Hossain, a local shopkeeper, told The Daily Star, after a blast ripped through a commercial building in Gulistan killing at least 16 people.

Safayet Hossain rushed to the blast site.

"I saw 20-25 people lying on the road in front of a ravaged building. They were seriously injured and most of them were bleeding. They were crying for help. 'Save us, save us'. Some people were running around in panic," he said.

The locals were taking the injured to hospitals in rickshaws.

"At first, I thought it was an earthquake," he added.

Another witness, Alamgir, who was close to the site, said people rushed out of the building after the bang. Everyone was in panic.

The windowpanes of the buildings fell onto the street injuring pedestrians.

More than 100 were injured in the explosion that occurred around 4:45pm at a building near the BRTC bus counter.

The cause of the explosion could not be known immediately