Debasish Bardhan, deputy director of the Fire and Civil Defense Bureau, said that 52 bodies have been found so far, but the top two floors of the factory have not been searched.

He said that the main exit of the factory was locked from the inside, and many dead were trapped.

According to the Bangladesh Union News Agency, many workers jumped from the top of the factory and at least 26 people were injured.

There is no immediate information about how many people are in the factory and how many people are missing.

“At present, we only have these details. After searching the top level, we will be able to get the complete picture,” Bardan said.

The tragic history of fatal factory fires

The tragic history of industrial disasters in Bangladesh, including factories on fire, and workers locked in.

Over the years, continued corruption and lax law enforcement have led to many deaths. After thousands of deaths in fires and other disasters, large international brands employing tens of thousands of low-paid workers in Bangladesh are under tremendous pressure to improve factory conditions.

The plant that caught fire on Thursday is a subsidiary of the Bangladeshi company Sajeeb Group, which produces juice under Shezan International Ltd. in Lahore, Pakistan, said Kazi Abdur Ra??hman, senior general manager of exports of the group.

According to the group’s website, the company’s products are exported to many countries, including Australia, the United States, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Bhutan, Nepal, and countries in the Middle East and Africa.

Rahman told the Associated Press by phone that the company fully complies with international standards, but he is not sure whether the factory’s exports are locked. According to Bangladesh’s factory law, when workers enter the factory during production hours, the factory cannot lock exports.

“We are a well-known company; we follow the rules,” he said. “What happened today is very sad. We regret it.”

As the recovery work progressed on Friday, the victims in the white body bags were stacked in a fleet of ambulances when relatives were crying. As heavy smoke rose from the still smoldering factory, the families of the missing workers waited anxiously for news from their loved ones outside the charred construction site.

Earlier, the family clashed with the police because they waited all night without any news about the fate of their loved ones.

The government ordered an investigation into the cause of the fire.

The past industrial tragedies are often blamed on security failures. Despite the rapid economic growth of South Asian countries, these failures still plague this South Asian country.

In 2012, about 117 workers were trapped in a garment factory in Dhaka and died after the exit was locked.

The following year, the country experienced the worst industrial disaster, when the Rana Plaza garment factory outside Dhaka collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people.

After the disaster, the authorities implemented stricter safety regulations, and the country’s clothing industry has basically become compliant under the supervision of domestic and global regulatory agencies. But many other local industries have failed to maintain safety compliance, and the disaster continues.

In February 2019, a fire swept through a 400-year-old area in Dhaka’s oldest district, which was packed with apartments, shops and warehouses and killed at least 67 people.

In 2010, a fire broke out in a house illegally storing chemicals in the old city of Dhaka, killing at least 123 people.

The ILO stated in a 2017 report that Bangladesh’s regulatory framework and inspections “have failed to keep up with the development of the industry”.