Eight dead in new Bangladeshi textile tragedy

DHAKA: A fire at a garment factory killed at least eight people Thursday in the latest disaster to hit Bangladesh's textile industry, still reeling from the deaths of more than 900 people in a building collapse.

The cause of the fire was not known but authorities said it broke out during the night on the third floor of an 11-storey building housing two garment factories in the capital's Darussalam district.

The owner of the Tung Hai sweater factory was among the victims, but there were no workers among the casualties as there was no overnight production, police and fire service officials said.

"It was a big fire but we managed to confine it on one floor," Mahbubur Rahman, operations director of the nation's fire service department, told AFP.

He said the victims died of suffocation after rushing into a stairwell and becoming overwhelmed by "toxic smoke from burnt acrylic clothing".

Local police chief Khalilur Rahman told AFP the fire killed "eight people including the owner, his four staff, a senior police officer, and a low-level police official".

"We have identities of seven people. But we have not identified the eighth," he added.

The fire comes as recovery teams are still finding bodies in the ruins of the nine-storey Rana Plaza garment factory complex that caved in on April 24 while some 3,000 garment workers were on shift.

More than 100 more bodies were recovered overnight, bringing the overall death toll to 912, according to the army. (AFP)