Bangladesh garment factory stampede kills 20

Bangladesh garment factory stampede kills 20

DHAKA (Reuters): A faulty fire alarm triggered a stampede of mostly women Bangladeshi factory workers on Wednesday, crushing 20 to death in a narrow staircase after they had broken down locked gates, police and survivors said.

A short circuit triggered the alarm at the Dhaka building which houses four garment factories, police said.

Sixteen workers died on the spot and four in hospital. Fifty workers were injured and at least six were fighting for their lives in hospital, police said.

Survivors said there was no fire but that gates at the entrance to each of the eight floors had been locked.

"We rushed to the gates when we heard the alarm and found them locked. We screamed for help but there was no one to help," said one.

Another survivor, Meera, wailing over the body of her sister at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, said: "We found ourselves caged like birds and there was no one to answer our call for help."

It was not immediately clear why the gates were locked but police quoted a factory official as saying that it was a standard security requirement.

Nearly 250 people have died in fires and stampedes at garment factories in Bangladesh since 1998, according to official figures.

In many cases, fire exits have been padlocked to prevent workers from straying off the job.

Clothing accounts for nearly 80 percent of Bangladesh's annual export earnings of more than $5 billion.

Some 3,000 garment factories in Bangladesh employ nearly two million workers, more than 90 percent of them women.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers' and Exporters' Association said factory owners had ignored calls for adequate safety provisions for workers, while authorities had failed to penalize those who failed to provide them.