At least 49 killed, hundreds injured in fire at container depot in Bangladesh

At least 49 people were killed and more than 450 were injured after a fire broke out at a container depot in Sitakunda, Bangladesh. Around 4,000 containers were stored at the depot when the incident took place on Saturday.

The incident is the latest in a series of similar accidents reported from the country where mass-casualty fires have become a recurring problem. As many as five firefighters also lost their lives while trying to save people from the horrific fire.

Hundreds of people had gathered at the spot for search and rescue operations when the initial fire led to a series of explosions, claiming more lives in its aftermath.

Local media reports have claimed that chemicals were stored in some of the containers. However, the cause of the disaster at one of the country's largest inland container depots has not been established yet.

The number of injured and those that are undergoing treatment at hospitals and the death toll is only expected to increase, according to a BBC report. Some of the people had to be airlifted to Dhaka because of their severe injuries.

Several people are still missing, including journalists who were reporting on the fire before the explosion. The explosions were so powerful that they could be heard kilometres away and shattered the windows of nearby buildings. Firefighters were still struggling to douse the fire on Sunday afternoon due to continued explosions.

"The window glasses of my house are broken. Not just ours — we heard from the other people that their windows were also broken, even at two to three kilometres away from the depot," Majharul Islam who lives about 100 meters from the depot, told The New York Times.

Meanwhile, the government has announced financial assistance of £1,760 for the victims and about £400 each for the treatment of injured.

This is not the first time that an industrial fire has claimed so many lives in Bangladesh. More than 1,000 people have lost their lives in various industrial disasters in the last 17 years, per the local media reports. Last July, a fire at a factory in Narayanganj city had killed at least 51 people.