Blast kills two at ship recycling yard in Chattogram, Bangladesh

Two people were killed while ten others suffered varying degrees of injury as a result of an explosion and a subsequent fire at a ship recycling yard in Chattogram district in Bangladesh on Saturday, September 7.

Local police officials said the incident occurred at around 11:30 local time on Saturday at the SN Corporation shipbreaking yard in Chattogram's Sitakunda municipality.

Officials believe that a team of 12 yard workers were cutting through one of the onboard compartments of a dismantled oil tanker. However, there have been conflicting media reports as to the site of the explosion, with some reports saying it occurred in the engine room while others claim it instead occurred in the pump room.

The 12 workers who were hurt in the blast were evacuated by responding firefighters and transported to hospital. Tragically, however, one worker died while undergoing treatment and another succumbed to his injuries as he was being transferred to another hospital that was better equipped for handling severe burn cases.

The country's Ministry of Industry has since ordered SN Corporation to cease operations to permit the conduct of an investigation into the incident.

An initial probe revealed that SN Corporation had previously committed a number of environmental and safety violations and that there have been at least 13 incidents at the company's Sitakunda ship recycling facilities over the last 14 years.