At least ten people have been killed in Bangladesh in a huge fire triggered by a boiler explosion at a packaging factory.
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The blast was caused by an explosion in the boiler room, at the start of the working day.
At least six of the 14 people being treated for burns at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital were in critical condition, said Mohammed Bacchu Mia, a police official at the hospital.
It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion.
The factory makes, among many other things, foil for cigarette packs for British American Tobacco and snack-food packaging for Nestle. In 2013, 1,135 workers were killed when the Rana Plaza building, outside of Dhaka collapsed.
Fires in garment factories have dropped from 250 in 2012 to just 30 in 2015, with no fatalities that year, according to Bangladesh fire department figures.
Firefighters are struggling to bring the blaze under control.
The disaster led to the creation of two worldwide coalitions created to help fund improvements to building and fire safety at thousands of garment factories across Bangladesh.
That sparked demands for greater safety in the country and put the onus on multinational companies sourcing clothing from Bangladesh to act.
Outside Tampaco Foils, onlookers gathered, many of them looking for missing relatives who worked at the factory. “They’ll probe why the fire occurred and whether the factory lacked proper fire safety measures”.
Firefighters work to put out a fire at a packaging factory in Tongi industrial area outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016. Huge piles of burned materials and chemicals had to be removed from the building to prevent the fire from spreading further, officials said.
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A fire broke out after the explosion, which happened while employees were inside the facility in Gazipur district, local police chief Harunur Rashid said.
