Bangladesh plastics factory fire kills at least 13 people

Scores were injured and more people may have died at Nasim Plastic House in a crowded market in the suburb of Mirpur, police official says

 Firefighters and locals try to douse the fire at a plastic factory in Mirpur. Photograph: Suvra Kanti Das/ Suvra Kanti Das/ZUMA Press/Corbis

Saturday 31 January 2015 

At least 13 people including two women were killed when a fire swept through a plastics factory in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka on Saturday.

Scores were injured and more people may have died at Nasim Plastic House in a crowded market in the suburb of Mirpur, a police official said.

“We are searching under a collapsed wall ... There might be more bodies under the debris,” fire service and civil defence director AKM Shakil Newaz said.

Fire department control official Mohammed Farhaduzzaman said the fire broke out Saturday evening at the five-storey factory.

He said 13 bodies were recovered from the gutted building and three people were hospitalized with burn injuries.

About 70 workers were inside the factory when the blaze broke out, said police.

The issue of safety in Bangladeshi factories was thrust into the spotlight by the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in April 2013, which killed more than 1,100 garment workers.