Dhaka: At least six people, including a woman, were killed today when a fire broke out in a textile factory in Bangladesh's Munshiganj district, police said. The fire erupted in the first-floor of the Ideal Textile mill building where chemicals were stored, they said.  

The blaze has left the factory in Charmuktarpur area near the district town severely damaged, police said.   Four fire-fighting units from Munshiganj and Narayanganj are working at the scene to put out the blazes, said Md Joynal Abedin, in-charge of Muktarpur police outpost. "A few other workers are still missing, so the death toll may rise. Renovations were going on the same floor, where welders were at work," Abedin was quoted as saying by bdnews24.  

"A spark caused the fire at the chemical warehouse, which spread to other parts soon after," the police officer said.  The victims did not die from the fire rather suffocated from the fumes of the chemicals, the official added. 

Police have detained four officials of the mill, including the general manager. Fires are common in Bangladeshi textile factories, despite efforts by the government to improve the poor working conditions.   At least 25 people were killed and over 70 injured in a huge fire triggered by a boiler explosion at a packaging factory in Bangladesh in September, in one of the worst industrial accidents in the country since 2013 when a building collapse claimed more than 1,100 lives.  

At least 13 people died in a fire at a plastics factory in Dhaka. In 2012, 112 workers died in a fire at a factory just outside the capital. The country suffered an even greater tragedy in 2013 when the Rana Plaza garment complex collapsed on the outskirts of Dhaka, killing 1,135 people, after another clothing factory building collapsed, trapping over 3,000 workers. PTI