At least 20 people have been killed and more than 70 people injured in a huge fire that broke out at a packaging factory in Bangladesh. Police said about 100 people were working in the four-story building in the town of Tongi, just north of the capital Dhaka, at the time. The blast was caused by an explosion in the boiler room, at the start of the working day, officials say. Firefighters are struggling to bring the blaze under control, BBC reported. Local fire and civil defense chief, Anis Ahmed, said there were now 20 fire trucks working to extinguish the fire. “We have removed eight bodies to the hospital and are trying to retrieve a further two. Once the fire is out, we will be able to enter the damaged structure to see if there are more bodies,” he said. Factory fires are common in Bangladesh where safety conditions are often poor. At least 13 people died in a fire at a plastics factory in Dhaka last year. 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.
