Firefighters struggled for more than eight hours to bring the fire under control and found the six charred bodies inside the factory of Jamuna Spinning Mills Ltd, a concern of Jamuna Group.

The dead are Lt Col (retd) Nazrul Islam, 55, general manager (Administration), Kamrul Islam, 36, production officer, Saiful Islam, 25, assistant quality controller, Badsah Miah, 32, dropper man, Abu Taher, 55, guard, and Lokman Hossain, 25.

The workers and locals however alleged the fire claimed more lives and the factory authorities drag away some of the charred bodies from the factory Wednesday night before the firefighters arrived.

Fire Brigade and Civil Defence sources said the fire could have originated from friction of the machines while the mills authorities suspect electric short-circuit as the cause of the flame.

Jamuna Group in an off-hand estimate claimed the fire gutted machines and goods worth more than Tk 100 crore. The group in a press release also promised to give compensation to the victims.

Originated at simplex section-16 of the factory at about 10:30pm, the fire immediately engulfed the whole factory triggering panic among some 700 employees working at the night shift.

The factory was totally devastated as the fire raged for several hours burning down machines and piles of cotton and yarn.

"Suddenly I saw clouds of smoke covering the whole factory. Electricity went out immediately," described a 15-year-old worker. "I heard yells of trapped workers and instructions to leave the factory."

The workers rushed towards the exits and found one of the two gates locked, said witnesses. Some of the workers lost their way to come out of the factory for darkness and smoke, they added.

The factory authorities in the press release claimed electricity went out automatically when the fire broke out while the workers alleged the mills officials switched off the power line.

Several workers claimed they had managed to control the fire immediately as it broke out but the flame rose again from smouldering flammable goods like cottons, yarns and threads.

Seeing the flame and smoke, several thousand workers of the six other mills and factories located inside the same boundary rushed to rescue the trapped workers but could not near the burning building.

Reaching the spot at about 11:30pm, Gazipur Fire Service tried to douse the flame but it continued to spread.

Later, 12 more fire units from Savar, Tongi, Tejgaon, Kurmitola, Mirpur and the headquarters with 80 firefighters strengthened the force to bring the blaze under control by 6:00am yesterday.

Shahidur Rahman, deputy assistant director of Gazipur Fire Service, told the press that the fire could have originated from the friction of machines or from electric short-circuit.

He however said the reason could be ascertained after proper investigation.

Firefighter Shamim Ahmed, 40, and police Havildar Sattar, 45, were injured while dousing the fire. They along with another injured factory worker were admitted to Gazipur Sadar Hospital.

Relatives thronged the hospital after the charred bodies were taken to the hospital morgue. Later they received the bodies.

Hundreds of workers and locals were seen gathering at the hospital to find their relatives as some of the workers were missing, they claimed.

The high officials of Jamuna Group, local political leaders and district police and administration officials visited the spot.