DHAKA: At least seven female workers were killed on Saturday after a blaze swept through a small garment factory in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, police and fire officials said.
The victims at the Smart factory, which employed around 300 people paid as little as $37 a month, died during a stampede and from suffocation as panic spread when then the fire broke out during a lunch break, the officials added.
"Most died in a stampede as they rushed to escape the fire," Bangladesh fire brigade operations director Mahbubur Rahman told AFP.
Firefighters brought the inferno in the city's Mohammadpur suburb under control within two hours, he said, adding that an investigation was underway to determine the cause of the fire.
Local police chief Azizul Haq told AFP the seven fatalities were all female workers and some had been overcome by suffocation as smoke engulfed the plant.
At least five other workers were critically injured, he added. (AFP)
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