Blaze at high-rise in Bangladesh kills at least 19

A huge fire in a Dhaka office block has killed at least 19 people, an official said on Thursday, with desperate workers leaping to their deaths in the latest major inferno to hit the Bangladeshi capital.

“The death toll has risen to 17,” Khurshid Alam, a fire service officer, told AFP, adding the toll may continue to rise as rescue crews search the torched building.

Officials said the fire in the 22-story commercial building also resulted in injuring at least 60 and trapping many,.

Some of those trapped waved frantically from the building’s windows and roof while others tried to jump to safety. Firefighters perched on cranes smashed windows in an attempt to reach those inside, witnesses said.

Hundreds of people gathered to watch in the street below.

One man who tried to escape by descending from a rope fell, a Reuters witness said.

Bangladeshi onlookers gather around during a blaze in an office building in Dhaka on March 28, 2019. (AFP)

The building is in the upscale, built-up Banani area of the city and the cause of the fire was not immediately clear.

A girl sobbing outside the building said her father worked in an office inside and he was not answering his phone.

“I don’t know where he is,” she said.

The blaze comes a month after a massive inferno killed 71 people in an old neighborhood of the city.

Critics at the time blamed poor enforcement of safety regulations in one of the world’s most densely packed cities.

Helicopters joined 22 firefighting units that worked with the army, navy, air force and police to battle Thursday’s blaze as smoke billowed into the sky.

“The fire is almost under control,” said Mizanur Rahman, a senior fire service official at the scene.

Several of the roughly 140 employees of the private firm Quasem Group that had multiple offices in the building, escaped across a roof to an adjacent building, said Shamim Reza Khan, an assistant general manager at the firm.

Nanda, a finance manager at the IT firm AAMRA which has offices on four different floors in the building, said he escaped with 20 colleagues.