Bangladesh factory fire toll 65, may rise
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-02-24 15:54

A fire that gutted a textile mill in Bangladesh's port city of Chittagong has killed at least 65 workers, many of them women, and left dozens missing, witnesses and hospitals said on Friday.

Flames of fire. At least 51 people were killed and more than 100 injured when a fire swept through a textile factory in the Bangladeshi city of Chittagong, officials said. [AFP]

About 80 people were injured in the country's biggest factory fire on Thursday, while several workers could still be trapped in the debris, rescue workers said.

The blaze at the K.T.S. Textile Mills was believed to have started when a boiler exploded.

Firefighters said they were yet to completely stamp out the blaze, more than 12 hours after it started, prompting local authorities to call in the army for assistance.

"Charred bodies are still being removed to hospitals," a Reuters' reporter said from the site of the fire. Wailing relatives crowded into the hospital corridors to identify the victims.

The death toll is likely to rise, said a doctor at the main hospital in Chittagong. "We are struggling to treat so many burn injuries," he said.

Some 500 workers, mostly women, were working the late evening shift when the disaster struck.

Police said the main gate of the three-storey factory, which employed about 1,500 workers, was locked from the outside and the gatekeeper could not be found immediately.

Textiles are Bangladesh's biggest export fetching the country some $6 billion annually, but safety standards at the mills are poor, officials and employees say.

More than 350 workers have been killed and some 2,500 injured in garment factory fires in Bangladesh since 1990, textile industry officials estimate.