Boiler explosion kills at least 10 in Bangladesh garment factory

At least 10 people were killed and up to 50 injured after a boiler exploded at a garment factory in Bangladesh on Monday (3 July), authorities said.

"Nine people were killed in the blast and one died in hospital," fire service official Palash Chandra Modak told Reuters.

The incident occurred on the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka, at around 7pm local time (2pm BST) at the Multifabs factory in Gazipur, according to Mohammad Akhtaruzzaman, an official at the Fire Service and Civil Defense department.

Fire fighters rushed to the scene at around 9pm and managed to douse the blaze in an hour, with the help of locals. The ground and second floors of the building were badly damaged in the accident.

The number of victims may increase further, according to a local fire service official.

The employees were at work in the dyeing section of the garment factory on the ground floor when the boiler exploded, Sub-Inspector Harun-ur-Rashid told the Dhaka Tribune.

Gazipur district's Deputy Commissioner Dr MD Humayun Kabir said that Bangladeshi taka 20,000 (£191.19) would be given to each victim's family and the labour ministry would bear the cost of the treatment of the injured.

The Fire Service headquarters Station Officer Md Ataur Rahman told bdnews24.com that they have started their own investigation and a three-member team would submit their report within a week.

Bangladesh's garment industry employs four million people and generates around 80 percent of the country's export earnings, making it the biggest in the world after China.

The country's apparel sector has been under scrutiny for a while for its poor safety record. In 2012, a fire in a garment factory resulted in the death of 112 workers and the collapse of a factory complex killed more than 1,100 in 2013.