Fire Panic
50 injured in stampede at RMG factory
Staff Correspondent
A stampede caused by an electrical spark inside a garment factory in Jatrabari area of the capital yesterday left about 50 people injured as panicked people tried to escape hurriedly suspecting a fire. The spark occurred at 3:30pm on the seventh floor of eight-storied Sufia Plaza, which houses the garment factory, Mega Tex Limited. The factory is situated on the fifth, sixth and the seventh floor. The injured victims said they heard a sound of an explosion followed by screams 'fire', 'fire'. "Without wasting any time to check the matter, we ran to the stairs to escape as soon as possible," Shilpi Akhter, an injured machine operator who was working on the seventh floor, told The Daily Star at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH). There are three staircases in the building. Hearing screams of the seventh-floor garment workers, other workers on the fifth and sixth floors also rushed to the stairs. Workers of Sweater Concern, a sweater factory, situated on the second to fourth floors, also rushed to the stairs causing a stampede. Mega Tex workers were injured during the stampede as they failed to come down due to crowding by workers of the sweater factory. Thirty-two Mega Tex workers were admitted to DMCH while the rest of the injured were treated at local clinics. "Our team went to the spot, but returned as it was not a fire," said a fire fighter.
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Injured workers lying on mattresses on the floor in a ward at Dhaka Medical College Hospital yesterday due to lack of beds. They were hurt in a fire-triggered stampede at a garment factory in Jatrabari in the capital. PHOTO: STAR |
