Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– At least four workers were killed and seven others injured in a massive explosion at a ship-breaking yard in the country’s southeastern Chittagong district on Saturday, police said.

A boiler at a ship-breaking yard at Madamdibir Haat in Sitakunda upazila (sub-district) “suddenly burst into flames” at about 11:00 (local time) while the workers were cutting a ship, police officials said.  

“We’ve recovered four bodies after the boiler blast,” a local police official told BBN over phone, adding that the injured were admitted to the Chitagong Medical College Hospital.

Saturday’s explosion was one of a number of such incidents in the growing ship breaking industry of Bangladesh which reports say lack proper streamlining and regulatory measures.

Some 30,000 workers are engaged in ship scrapping in Chittagong’s Sitakunda, which houses the world’s second largest ship-breaking industry after China. More than 250,000 people in the country live off the industry directly and indirectly.

BBN/SS/SI/AD-27December09-3:01pm (BST)