BANGLADESH – At least 15 people have been killed and more than 70 people injured in a huge fire that broke out at a packaging factory in Bangladesh.
Police said around 100 people were working in the four-storey building in the town of Tongi, just north of the capital Dhaka, at the time.
The blast was caused by a boiler explosion, and flames quickly spread throughout the building, officials say.
The fire is not yet under control, the emergency services say.
“The death toll has risen to 15 and at least 70 people have been injured,” Parvez Mia, a doctor at the town’s hospital, told the AFP news agency.
“Most of them had burn injuries. We sent the critically injured victims to the hospitals in Dhaka.”
Factory fires are common in Bangladesh, where safety conditions are often poor.
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At least 13 people died in a fire at a plastics factory Dhaka last year.
In 2012, 112 workers died in a fire at a factory just outside the capital.
The country suffered an even greater tragedy in 2013 when the Rana Plaza garment complex collapsed on the outskirts of Dhaka, killing 1,135 people.
