Dhaka: eAt least 10 persons were killed and a dozen injured in a collision between a truck and a mini truck in Bangladesh’s Chuadanga on Sunday, police said.
The accident took place on a highway connecting Dhaka and southern Khulna town, Xinhua news agency quoted police as saying.
The death toll may rise as many of the injured are in critical condition.
The truck driver has been detained, a police official said.
Bangladesh has one of the highest fatality rates for road accidents in the world due to shoddy highways, poorly maintained vehicles, violation of traffic rules and lack of monitoring of the traffic department.
Thousands of people are killed in accidents in Bangladesh every year.
Of those seriously wounded include Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) Intelligence chief who has been airlifted to Dhaka for better treatment.
One of the injured persons, Gulzar Ahmed, told bdnews24.com at the hospital that some onlookers stopped a person carrying a black polythene bag.
“The blast occurred just after he said that there was red spinach in the bag. Five to six people were injured in the explosion,” he said.
“Another large explosion occurred when police and RAB rushed to the scene. Around 25 people were injured in the second blast,” he added.
Witnesses earlier said two people riding a motorcycle ‘carried out an explosion’ at one end of the street where the militant hideout is located.
The blasts came within an hour of a media briefing on a raid at the militant hideout in which an army spokesperson said the commandos were storming a complex housing two buildings -- one five-storey and the other four-storey.
Mediapersons and onlookers in the area were asked to move at least a kilometre away when troops from the Para-Commando Battalion began the assault on Saturday morning to round off a 30-hour siege to the complex.
Police said the militants rented a flat some months ago. The 30 families residing in as many other units of the buildings were trapped during the raid.
The commandos have rescued 78 people from the building, which the army spokesperson said was their priority.
