Five injured after lift mishap at Karwan Bazar building

Five people have been hospitalised after a lift malfunction at the Bangladesh Development Bank Ltd (BDBL) building in Dhaka's Karwan Bazar.

The incident occurred just before office hours around 9:00am on Tuesday due to a mechanical failure in one of the lifts in the 18-storey building, according to Inspector Nazmul Jannat Shah from Tejgaon Police Station.

“While the lift was ascending from the ground floor, it suddenly jolted and dropped from the second floor. It then continued moving upward with repeated jerks and eventually stopped on the 15th floor,” Nazmul said.

“Several people inside the lift were injured. We’ve learnt that five of them have been admitted to BRB Hospital in Panthapath.”

He could not immediately provide the names or identities of the injured.

No official complaint has been filed with the police by the injured parties yet, according to Nazmul.

The BDBL building houses a mix of government and private offices, including the offices of daily Bonik Barta and Ekattor Television.

Initial reports circulating on social media claimed that the lift's cable had snapped, leading to the injuries.

In a Facebook post, a media worker named Shahnaz Sharmeen said that in addition to the five people hospitalised, six others were injured in the incident.

Adding that her office is located in the same building, she wrote: “The office was scheduled to open at 10am. Two of the building’s four lifts are always out of service. The rest barely function, but somehow keep running.”