Bangladesh factory fire toll 54: official

CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh (Reuters) – The official death toll
from Bangladesh’s worst factory fire in the port city of
Chittagong was 54, disaster management officials said on
Saturday.

Dozens of workers were still missing on Saturday, feared
trapped under heaps of rubble, and may not be found as the
rescue effort was officially ended on Friday evening.

An earlier toll from the K.T.S. Textile Mill put the number
of dead at 65 with over 80 injured, but those figures have now
been revised.

Most of the victims were women on the late shift.

Police said the main gate of the three-storey factory —
which employed about 1,500 workers — had been locked from the
outside when the fire broke out.

Textiles are Bangladesh’s biggest export fetching the
country some $6 billion annually, but safety standards at the
mills are poor, officials and employees say.

More than 350 workers have been killed and more than 2,500
were injured in garment factory fires in Bangladesh since 1990,
textile industry officials said.