Bangladesh officials say fire exacerbated by mislabelled chemicals

Bangladeshi officials have accused the operator of a container depot of exacerbating a deadly blaze by not storing chemicals safely.

Nine firefighters were among more than 40 people killed after fire broke out near the port city of Chittagong.

Officials said containers of hydrogen peroxide were labelled incorrectly - and firefighters doused flames with water instead of foam.

The depot company has yet to comment on the allegations.

On Monday, officials revised down the initial death toll from 49 to 41, saying some bodies had been counted twice. Many of the hundreds injured remain in a critical condition and the number of dead is expected to rise.

Purnachandra Mutsuddi, an assistant director with the local firefighting service, told the AFP news agency that as soon as the firefighters entered the depot on Saturday they unwittingly doused the hydrogen peroxide with water, setting off an explosive reaction that sent "a container flying more than 500 feet".

"There are some rules to keep hydrogen peroxide. Had we known this, we would never throw water. We would never take our vehicle inside the depot," he said.

The fire, which has now been blazing for three days, is under control but has not been extinguished completely.

Local police chief Abul Kalam Azad said that an investigation into the causes of the blaze had begun.

It remains unclear what sparked the blaze, which injured about 300 people, more than 12 of whom are in a critical condition. Two firefighters are among the missing.

Relatives of those unaccounted for are arriving at a local hospital in Chittagong and police spokesperson Shanewaz Khaled said it could take weeks to identify the deceased.

Mr Khaled told the BBC Bengali service that police had collected 23 samples for DNA testing so far. "If someone is missing from the fire, the families can give their samples to us. We will use it for DNA testing."

He said the process could take a month to complete.

The fire broke out at around 21:00 local time (15:00 GMT) on Saturday and hundreds of firefighters, police and volunteers quickly arrived on the scene.

As they tried to extinguish the blaze a huge explosion rocked the site, engulfing many of the rescuers in flames and throwing debris and people into the air.

"The explosion just threw me some 10 metres from where I was standing. My hands and legs are burnt," lorry driver Tofael Ahmed told AFP news agency.

The blast was so large it was heard several kilometres away and shattered the windows of nearby buildings. One local shopkeeper told reporters that a piece of debris had flown half a kilometre and landed in his pond. He described seeing "fireballs falling like rain" after the explosion.