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Published : 28 Jun 2021, 02:23 AM
“I had absolutely no idea what to do. My mind was not functioning properly while my hearing failed me as I rushed downstairs. But I was conscious.
“Once I was downstairs, large shards of glass kept falling from above. I was able to somehow come out climbing over debris of bricks, stones and glasses,” Suleiman, who resides in Siddeshwari and works for a private organisation, told bdnews24.com.
The details drawn from people who witnessed the blast tearing down a three-storey building paint a grim scene of the incident which occurred at 79 Outer Circular Road around 7:30pm on Sunday.
“Panting after running to a safe place, I finally realised I was alive. Reaching home, I realised I had dropped my mobile phone somewhere.”
Aarong has an outlet opposite the collapsed building. Broken glass walls of some buildings, including that of Aarong, littered the road.
Social media is being flooded by people sharing their reaction to the incident.
Mahsuma Safta, a civil servant who was at the large Aarong outlet, wrote on her Facebook, “The blast took place around 7:30pm. I was at my wit’s end thinking I am perhaps caught in a terrorist attack or an attack was imminent.”
“Will I be able to return to my daughter? I was able to get out of Aarong, but it was disorienting. I went past the blood and debris to get to a rickshaw and called Samiul.”
“I turned the TV on after reaching home. The news began filtering in. I’m alive. It’s a miracle. I was unharmed. But the trauma is overpowering me.”
Authorities suspect the building that collapsed was the epicentre of the explosion.
The blast was so powerful that the shock wave smashed the glasses of nearly a dozen buildings around it while also hitting the Aarong outlet which was located beyond a flyover on the other side of the road.
The ground floor of the building housed outlets of Shawarma House restaurant chain and Bengal Meat. Singer has its showroom on the second floor.
Rickshaw puller Momin Ali heard the sound while heading for the Wireless Railgate.
“I was carrying two passengers and suddenly heard the booming noise. My first thoughts after hearing the sound was that some terrorists must’ve launched an attack,” he said.
“The passengers ran off. I somehow parked the rickshaw.”
Farzana Muhit was on his way to visit a patient at Ad-Din Women's Medical College Hospital in the same area when the building came crashing down.
“Our car ran into a traffic jam. My car broke down after the blast occurred. We were lucky to survive after scrambling out of the car. Or else death was staring right at us. It’s unbelievable, but we are actually alive.”
Farzana said her head was ringing and the doctors at Ad-Din hospital asked her to rest.
Businessman Aleem, who identified a single name, said: “I've an establishment here and I went there after saying my prayers at Wireless mosque. It happened 10 to 15 minutes later - a thunderous noise, which even beat the sound of bombs.
“I was so scared. I came out at that moment and saw glasses from walls of buildings all around, the buses were obliterated.”
He said the building where the blast took place belonged to ‘Khokan’.
Several residents of an apartment building in the area came downstairs following the explosion.
One of them, Mufakar Ul Islam, added: “We are at a distance here. Still, several glasses of our apartment were shattered.”
On how that may have happened, he said, “It was due to the ear-splitting sound. Many people in the area will develop hearing issues. I myself am feeling out of sorts. Everyone in our apartment was struck with fear, and the children are totally unnerved.”
The Fire Service authorities suspect the blast may have been triggered by gas explosion. But the cause of the incident will be clear after an investigation, he said.
“The incident should be investigated by experts.”
Mufakhar said many were injured when shards of glass fell from the buildings, including many on buses.
The police said at least seven people were killed while more than 50 others were injured.
