Bangladesh factory DEADLY fire: At least 15 killed in Tongi

At least 15 people have been killed and more than 70 people injured in an enormous fire that broke out at a packaging factory in Bangladesh.

Authorities said around 100 people were working in the four -storey building in town of Tongi, just north of the capital Dhaka, at the time.

Flames quickly spread through the building, and a boiler explosion caused the blast, officials say.

The fire is not yet under control, the emergency services say.

“The death toll has climbed to 15 and at least 70 people have been injured,” Parvez Mia, a physician at the town’s hospital, told the AFP news agency.

“Most of them had burn injuries. We sent the critically wounded victims to the hospitals in Dhaka.”

Factory fires are common in Bangladesh, where safety conditions in many cases are inferior.

At least 13 people died in a fire at a plastics factory Dhaka last year.

112 workers perished in a fire at a factory outside the capital.

The country suffered an even greater catastrophe in 2013 when the Rana Plaza garment complex collapsed killing 1,135 people.