Bangladesh factory fire kills 121, injures 100

A fire in a clothes factory on the outskirts of Bangladesh’s capital has killed at least 121 people and injured more than 100 others, police and witnesses say.

The fire at the nine-story Tazreen Fashions factory 30 kilometres north of Dhaka started on the ground floor on Saturday night, trapping hundreds of workers on the upper floors, police said.

Police inspector Mostofa said that most of the victims died as they jumped from the factory’s upper floors to escape the raging fire.

According to eyewitnesses, the death toll is expected to rise.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

Fatal blazes are common in Bangladesh’s garment factories.

In December 2010, a similar blaze in a textile unit in the Ashulia industrial belt killed 25 people.