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Death toll rises to 33 in Bangladesh factory fire

Xinhua, September 13, 2016 Adjust font size:

Death toll has risen to 33 in a devastating fire that occurred at a packaging factory in Tongi on the outskirts of the Bangladesh capital Dhaka on Saturday morning, said a local official on Monday.

The local administration official, who did not like to be named, said four more bodies were pulled out of the rubble of Tampaco Foils Ltd factory Monday.

Officials on Sunday night said the death toll from the fire rose to 29 with recovery of five more bodies.

A boiler explosion reportedly resulted in the devastating fire in the factory on Saturday at about 6:00 a.m. ( local time).

Firefighting units have been continuing search operation through the rubble for missing persons.

Hundreds of relatives and friends of the ill-fated factory workers and officials on Monday also gathered at the site to identify the dead or in the quest for missing ones.

Authorities Monday put the number of missing persons at 12.

Also on Monday, Bangladesh Army personnel joined the search operation at the factory which collapsed like a sandwich.

At least 24 workers were killed on Saturday in the explosion- triggered fire, the biggest industrial disaster since 2013 when the Rana Plaza building collapsed leaving over 1,130 workers dead.

Brigadier General ASM Mahmud Hasan, commander of the army team conducting the rescue operation, told journalists that it would take about two months to remove the debris of the collapsed factory.

"So far we understand debris is more than that of the Rana Plaza building which also collapsed like a sandwich." Endit