The death toll in the fire tragedy at a Bangladeshi factory today climbed to 29 after four more bodies were retrieved from under the debris of the collapsed building as fire fighters continued their search for missing persons.
"Four bodies were found from under the debris of the partly collapsed (four-storey) factory building," Deputy Commissioner or Administrative Chief of Gazipur said.
Witnesses and media have reported that smokes were still coming out from the sight despite claims by the fire fighters to have douse the fire.
"We have almost brought the fire under control. We are dousing the blaze in parts of the factory from where the smoke are coming out," fire service department director Lieutenant Colonel Mosharraf Hossain said.
The fire was initially thought to have triggered by a powerful boiler explosion at the Tempako Packaging Factory in Tongi industrial area near Dhaka, but officials later claimed they have found the factory tank intact fuelling speculation that a gas leak could be the reason behind the blast.
About 100 people were believed to have been inside the food and cigarette packaging unit when the explosion occurred.
Eleven people still remain missing and are feared to be trapped inside with little hope of survival, officials said.
Fire fighters toiled through the night but officials said the structure was still too dangerous to enter for search and rescue operation.
Witnesses said the spread of the fire to adjacent buildings made the fire fighters work more difficult.
"Our fire fighters are working in phases to douse the blaze and rescue the victims," Hossain said.
Authorities have constituted at least four committees to probe the disaster. Senior leaders including Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu today promised to bring to justice the persons responsible for the tragedy.
He said his ministry has decided to launch an investigation in all factories to check out their equipment.
"We have instructed to check for leakages, electrical malfunction and the boilers."
Low-cost manufacturing is the mainstay in Bangladesh, one of the world's top garment exporters with a USD 27-billion industry. But a series of industrial disasters in recent years have raised questions about its safety standards.
Tighter controls have been introduced, but dozens of workers still die every year.
At least 13 people died in a fire at a plastic factory in Dhaka last year. In 2012, 112 workers died in a fire at a factory just outside the capital.
The country suffered an even greater tragedy in 2013 when the Rana Plaza garment complex collapsed on the outskirts of Dhaka, killing 1,135 people, after another clothing factory building collapsed, trapping over 3,000 workers.
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