At least 16 people have died after a huge fire broke out at a garment factory in Bangladesh, with officials warning that the toll could rise.
Sixteen bodies have been recovered and will be handed to families after DNA testing, as they have been burnt beyond recognition, the fire service said.
Distraught relatives gathered outside the four-storey factory in Dhaka's Mirpur area on Tuesday in search of their loved ones still missing.
The blaze ignited around midday and was extinguished after three hours; however, an adjacent chemical warehouse continued to burn, according to authorities.
Large fires are common in densely populated Bangladesh, often due to lax safety standards and poor infrastructure, resulting in numerous casualties in recent years.
Fire service officials reported that most of the deaths were attributed to toxic gas inhalation compounded by the locked emergency roof door, leading to immediate fatalities among victims.
Officials have confirmed that the chemical warehouse which was involved did not possess fire safety clearance or an operational license, raising serious concerns about regulatory compliance.
As family members anxiously searched for their loved ones, many held photographs of those missing, such as a distraught father hoping to find his daughter, Farzana Akhter.
This tragedy underscores Bangladesh's troubling history of industrial disasters, including a previous fire in 2021 that killed at least 52 people and the infamous Rana Plaza collapse in 2013, which resulted in over 1,100 deaths.
