At least 17 people, including two women, were killed and over 100 others injured on Tuesday in a powerful "earthquake-like" explosion at a seven-storey building here in Bangladesh's capital city, police and local residents said.

Eleven firefighting units, comprising 200 firemen, were mobilised at the spot after the blast, which occurred around 4:50 pm (local time) at Old Dhaka’s crowded Gulistan area, the fire service control room said.

"Sixteen bodies have been found (so far), but the toll could rise as the rescue operation is underway," a fire service official told reporters.

One person succumbed to his injuries at the hospital, raising the toll to 17.

"Most of the deaths were caused by brain hemorrhage,” Health Minister Zahid Maleque said.

The cause of the explosion could not be known immediately, but local residents suspected chemicals illegally stored inside the building, mostly used as an office and business complex, might have sparked the blast.

Several people have been trapped under the rubble of the building. "We have to cut through the concrete to rescue them. The fire service is working on it," an official said.

"At first, I thought it was an earthquake. The entire Siddik Bazar area was shaken by the blast," eyewitness Safayet Hossain, a local shopkeeper, told The Daily Star newspaper.

"I saw 20-25 people lying in the road in front of a damaged building. They were seriously injured and bleeding. They were crying out for help. Some people were running around in panic," he said.

He added that the locals were carrying the injured in vans and rickshaws to the hospital.

Alamgir, who was close to the blast site, said, "After the loud noise, people quickly came out of the building. There was panic on everyone's faces. The glass of the building's windows shattered and fell onto the street. Many pedestrians on the street were injured." The Rapid Action Battalion's bomb disposal unit was rushed to the spot to inspect the buildings. Later, the Army bomb disposal unit also joined the mission.

“We cannot confirm yet if the blast was the outcome of any sabotage. But our bomb disposal unit along with military and police bomb disposal teams are working,” said RAB director general M Khurshid Hossain.

"Our focus is on the rescue operation. The cause of the fire could be known only after investigations,” fire service director general Brigadier General Mohammad Mainuddin told reporters.

Dozens of injured were taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, said DMCH police outpost inspector Bacchu Miah.

He added that all of them were receiving treatment at the hospital's emergency unit.

A huge crowd queued up in front of the DMCH blood bank to donate blood for wounded people responding to a call by the hospital authorities.

The building has several stores for sanitary products on the bottom floor and a branch of BRAC Bank was located in the building adjacent to it.

The blast shattered the glass walls of the bank and also damaged a bus standing on the opposite side of the road, reports said.

The police believe it was an accident not a case of sabotage but said they will investigate that possibility, according to Dhaka Tribune newspaper.

Fire officials said the blast occurred on the ground floor and the first two floors of the building were badly damaged.

The blast occurred two days after another exposition at a building in Dhaka’s Science Laboratory area that killed three people and injured several others.

Last week, seven people were killed in an explosion at a private oxygen plant in the southeastern port city of Chattogram, injuring dozens others.

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