At least 16 people sustained burn injuries in a fire following a blast at a LPG filling station in Kolatoli area of Cox's Bazar district town on Wednesday night.

At least 10 houses near the filling station and 20 to 25 tourist jeeps were gutted in the fire.

The explosion occurred around 10:20pm at the ‘N Alam’ LPG filling station  with a big bang, causing fire that spread to the nearby houses, said Deputy Assistant Director (DAD) of Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence Syed Muhammad Morshed.

On information, local firefighting units rushed to the spot and extinguished the fire with the help of members of the army, air force, fire service and Red Crescent and local people around 3am on Thursday after nearly five hours.

Among the injured seven were sent to Chattogram Medical College Hospital while three others to Dhaka for better treatment.

Sabuktageen Mahmud Sohel, resident medical officer of Cox's Bazar Sadar Hospital said six people are undergoing treatment at the hospital while 10 others were sent to Dhaka.

Witnesses and fire service sources said gas leakage from the LPG station spread a strong smell across the area for nearly three hours, causing panic among residents.

The filling station had no valid approval and the massive explosion was triggered by a gas leak, said DAD Morshed.

Touhidul Islam, a local resident, said the whole area was filled with suffocating gas fumes before the explosion and the fire rapidly spread to adjacent Adarsha Gram and Chandrima Housing areas.

Local people blamed negligence on the part of the station owners.

Officer-in-Charge of Cox’s Bazar Sadar Model Police Station, Sami Uddin said the situation is now under control and law enforcement personnel were deployed at the scene.

Fire service officials said legal action will be taken against the owners of the unauthorised filling station.