'Everything turned into ruins in seconds'

Farzana began her day like any other day. She completed her morning chores and dropped her younger son Atifur Rahman to the KG school. She returned to take her older son Atikur Rahman, who is studying in class 2, to morning tuition classes.

Little did they know they would get crushed by a wall and lose their lives.

Not only did the mother and son lose their lives, five more lives were lost in a gas pipeline blast in Chattogram on Sunday.

Little Atif is still looking for his mother. 

Advocate Ataur Rahman cried his heart out after losing his wife and son. The corridors of Chattogram Medical College Hospital echoed his screams.

"I lost everything in seconds," he wailed.

Monzur Hossain opened up his shop like he does every morning. Day labourer Nurul Islam came for a cup of tea. It was eight o'clock in the morning. 

Suddenly everything around them trembled with an alarming noise. In seconds, a wall from the adjacent building crashed on to the shop. It instantly killed Nurul Islam. 

People came to the shop and rescued shopkeeper Monzur. He was critically injured in the incident.

Describing the incident, Monzur said, "There was a monstrous sound and then in moments the front of the store came down. The wall crashed on the man having tea. Everything turned into ruins in a matter of seconds. Allah saved me. My shop is completely destroyed."

The incident took place is Barua Bhaban at Brickfield Road of Chattogram's Patharghata area. 

The ground floor of the five-storied building is just rubbles now. Five shops, including Janata Pharmacy, a photo studio and a tea stall, were damaged. 

Kishore Chowdhury, a resident of building in front of the affected building, said, "I got out of the house around 8:30 am and went to the tea shop. Two minutes later, just as I was entering my building, I heard a terrible noise. The whole area was covered with smoke. When I arrived at the gate, I saw scattered corpses. I don't know what my fate would have been if I had not come home in time."