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At least 21 people were killed and dozens injured in a fire at a garment factory on Friday near Bangladesh's capital.
Firefighters struggled for hours to put out the blaze, the cause of which was unknown, said a policeman from Dhaka's Siddirganj suburb.
"Twenty-one charred bodies have been recovered from the factory, where dozens of injured were still lying," the policeman said.
Thick smoke from the four-story Sun Knit Garment Factory still hung over the wide area, witnesses said.
Fire officials were investigating the cause of the fire, which destroyed the building.
Bangladesh earns over US$5 billion a year from garment exports. The sector employs about 2 million workers, most of them women. But lax safety standards and poor electrical wiring cause several factory fires every year in Bangladesh, killing dozens of people, police and firefighters say.
(Chinadaily.com.cn via agencies, January 7, 2005)
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