A massive fire swept through an inland container depot in southeastern Bangladesh, killing at least 49 people and injuring more than 300, officials said on Sunday. 

The fire broke out at a container facility on Saturday night at Sitakunda, about 40 kilometers from the port city of Chittagong, triggering a huge blast and multiple container explosions subsequently at the site, officials said.

Firefighters were still scrambling to put out the fire on Sunday noon as chemical filled containers were still exploding, said fire service officials.

The injured include at least 40 firefighters and 10 police officers, said Chittagong regional police chief Anwar Hossain. At least five firefighters are among those killed.

"The number of fatalities is expected to rise as some of the injured are in critical condition," Hossain said.

The explosion shook the neighborhood and shattered glasses of windows of nearby buildings, local residents said. Eyewitnesses said that the blast engulfed people who had been battling the fire.

The container depot held hydrogen peroxide, fire service chief Brigadier General Main Uddin told reporters. "We still could not control the fire because of the existence of this chemical," he said.

Chowdhury, the chief doctor in Chittagong, said the injured had been rushed to different hospitals in the region as doctors were brought back from holiday to help. Requests for blood donations for the injured flooded social media.

Mominur Rahman, chief administrator of Chittagong district, said the government has deployed some 200 army troops to the depot to prevent chemicals flowing into the sea.

He said while the fire was largely under control, there were "still several pockets of fire."

He added that the depot contained millions of dollars of garments waiting to be exported to Western retailers, for whom Bangladesh is a key supplier.

The fire's cause was still unknown and a probe has been ordered, according to local officials.

This massive fire is not the only case in Bangladesh in recent years. In July 2021, 54 people died when a blaze ripped through a massive food-processing factory outside the capital Dhaka.

In February 2020, 70 people were killed when another fire engulfed several Dhaka apartment blocks.

(With input from AFP and Reuters)