BBC (UK), AFP
DHAKA – A new fire in a garment factory in Bangladesh has killed eight people including the factory’s managing director and a police officer.
The fire broke out overnight in a clothes factory in the capital Dhaka, racing through first three floors of the 11-story building. The factory’s 300 workers had gone home for the day.
“It was a big fire but we managed to confine it,” Mahbubur Rahman, operations director of Bangladesh’s fire service told the AFP. “The victims died from the “toxic smoke from burnt acrylic clothing,” he said.
The death toll from last month’s Rana Plaza building collapse is now up to 912 people, officials announced on Thursday. About 2,500 people were injured in the collapse.
After a spate of recent tragedies, the government announced on Wednesday it was shutting down 18 garment factories for safety reasons, reports the BBC.
“We have seen that those who claim to be the best compliant factories in Bangladesh have not fully abided by building regulations,” said Abdul Latif Siddique, the Bangladeshi textile minister.
