Twenty-one dead, 50 hurt in Bangladesh factory fire

DHAKA (Reuters) - At least 21 people were killed and nearly 50 injured in a fire at a Bangladesh clothing factory on Thursday, doctors and police said.

The fire raged for more than two hours at the Garib and Garib Newaj Garment factory in Gazipur, about 50 km (30 miles) north of the capital, Dhaka.

Doctors at Gazipur hospital said 13 of the dead were women. Earlier, fire services said they had taken 18 seriously burned people to the hospital.

Clothing factories in Bangladesh are prone to fires as a result of poor safety standards.

The textile industry is one of the country's most important, accounting for more than $10 billion in exports annually, more than two-thirds (80 percent) of total exports.

Eleven fire tenders brought the fire under control after more than an hour and fire crews searched the building for the dead and injured.

A local reporter earlier said some of the injured were fighting for their lives in hospital and the death toll was likely to rise .

The cause of the fire was not immediately known. Relatives of the victims flocked to the scene.

A police officer said there were many casualties but declined to give figures.

(Reporting by Nizam Ahmed)