GARMENT FACTORY BLAZE KILLS 104 IN BANGLADESH

FACTORY BLAZE KILLS 104

DHAKA, Nov 25, 2012 (AFP) -

More than 100 workers were killed when a fierce blaze tore through a busy garment factory in Bangladesh, forcing people to leap from high windows to escape the choking smoke and flames.

Firefighters battled for several hours to control the fire, which broke out in the ground-floor warehouse of the nine-storey Tazreen Fashion factory, 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of the capital Dhaka on Saturday evening.

Survivors told how panicked staff, mostly women, desperately tried to

Firefighters battled for several hours to control the fire, which broke out in the ground-floor warehouse of the nine-storey Tazreen Fashion factory

escape the blazing building, which made clothes for international brands including Dutch chain C&A and the Hong Kong-based Li & Fung company.

“There were more than 1,000 workers trapped in the factory,” one worker who gave her name only as Romesa, 42, told local media from her hospital bed.

“I jumped from a window on the fourth floor and found myself on the third-story roof of another building. Several people fell out of the window and died.”

The operations director of the fire brigade, Major Mahbub, who uses one name, told AFP that the death toll had been lowered on Sunday morning to 104 from 121.

Horror: At least a hundred people are thought to have died at the clothing factory fire in Bangladesh

Hoping and praying: Colleagues stand beside Asma, a garment worker, who was injured in the devastating fire (Daily Mail, London)