Relatives Flock To Hospitals After Bangladesh Blast Kills More Than 40

Scores of people gathered to give DNA samples at a Bangladesh hospital Monday as authorities struggled to identify the remains of more than 40 people killed in a devastating explosion

Sitakunda, Bangladesh, June 6 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 6th Jun, 2022 ) :Scores of people gathered to give DNA samples at a Bangladesh hospital Monday as authorities struggled to identify the remains of more than 40 people killed in a devastating explosion.

Dozens of missing workers from a container depot were still unaccounted for, while many of the dead were burned beyond recognition.

Nine of the victims were firefighters, and officials accused the operators of the B.M. Container Depot in Sitakunda of not telling them about a chemical stockpile before it exploded, sending fireballs into the sky.

Munni Akhter, 25, queued for hours to give a DNA sample at a makeshift stand outside the Chittagong Medical College.

When her turn finally came she struggled to hold back tears as doctors took her blood.

Her lorry driver brother Mohammad Akhter was giving a "running commentary" on the fire on Facebook Live, she told AFP, holding up a phone showing his broadcast.

"Then after the blast, it was all dark," she said.

"Since then, we couldn't find him." Abdul Hannan, 60, carried a portrait of his missing son, a worker at the depot.

"My son called his wife and told her about the fire," he said.

"She heard the explosion over the phone. Since then, we couldn't contact him anymore. I have lost my child, oh God!" Authorities revised the death toll down from 49 to 41, but it was expected to rise again with at least 14 critically injured victims flown to the capital Dhaka in military helicopters for treatment.

Officials said at least nine firefighters were killed in the inferno -- the most Bangladesh has ever lost in a single incident in the industrial-accident-prone country, where safety standards are lax and corruption often enables them to be ignored.

Two more firefighters are among several people still missing, officials said.

"Never in the history of the fire department have so many firefighters died," said Purnachandra Mutsuddi, who led the fire-fighting effort at the 26-acre facility on Saturday night.