Dozens hurt as blasts hit Bangladesh hotel
A series of blasts thought to be caused by a ruptured gas pipeline set off a fire in a hotel in the Bangladeshi capital overnight, injuring at least 45 people.
The explosions occurred at Hotel Orchard, a 12-floor building in central Dhaka, senior police official Mrinal Kanti Saha said.
“We are still trying to find what has happened,” Mr Saha said at the scene, adding that there had not been any evidence of a bomb.
Another security official, Mahbub Islam, said he suspected the blasts were caused by a leak in a gas pipeline.
The fire engulfed three floors of the hotel, Mr Saha said. Firefighters were called out to douse the blaze and rescue hotel guests, many of them awakened by the explosions.
The injured included two Sri Lankans who were staying at the hotel, Mr Saha said. One of them was identified as AR Samaltilak, a visiting official from Sri Lanka’s Commercial Bank of Ceylon, in whose room the first explosion occurred at 9.30pm.
A fire started after the first explosion, followed by two more blasts a few hours later, shattering glass windows and tossing furniture and refrigerators into the streets from the sixth and the seventh floors.
Mr Samaltilak reportedly told police that the first blast occurred in his sixth-floor room when he lit a cigarette before going to bed, Mr Saha said.
Mr Samaltilak was being treated at a Dhaka hospital for severe burns.
Many of the injured suffered burns and were given first aid treatment. Others were injured by glass shrapnel.
