Bangladesh: Death toll rises to 23 in garment factory explosion

ANI | Updated: Sep 10, 2016, 03:04 PM IST

Bangladeshi firefighters and volunteers work to put out a fire and search for survivors at the site of an explosion in a factory in the key Bangladeshi garment manufacturing town of Tongi, just north of the capital Dhaka, on September 10, 2016

The cause for the fire in the industrial zone of Tongi is not yet known

At least 23 workers were killed and 74 others injured in an explosion at a garment packaging factory in Tongi BSCIC industrial area of Bangladesh's Gazipur district on Saturday.

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Superintendent of Gazipur police Harun-ur Rashid has confirmed the death toll in the incident, reports the Daily Star. The incident is considered the biggest industrial disaster since 2013, when the Rana Plaza building collapsed.

20 units of firefighters were trying to douse the fire this afternoon, while rescue operation continued. The district administration has formed a five-member investigation committee which will submit its report in 15 working days.

Meanwhile, Riyad Ahmed, marketing executive of Tampaco Foils Limited, said that a large number of workers were present at the factory during the incident as they were in the process of taking the charges from the night shift labourers. He added that the factory runs three shifts round the clock, each with eight hours.

Readymade garments are the mainstay of the Bangladeshi economy, and earned $28 billion in exports during the fiscal year that ended in June.

Weak fire protection systems are common in factories in Bangladesh, where more than 1,100 workers died in a 2013 building collapse that ranks as the country's worst industrial disaster.