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High-rise Fire in Dhaka, Bangladesh Kills 19

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Firefighters work to douse a fire in a multi-storied office building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, March 28, 2019.
Firefighters work to douse a fire in a multi-storied office building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, March 28, 2019.

At least 19 people have been killed by a fire in a high-rise office building in the Bangladesh capital.

Search operations continued late into Thursday night, with an unknown number of people still trapped in the building. There were still some flames inside the building, but reports say much of the blaze was out.

Officials say more than 100 people were rescued from the building. One person died while trying to climb out of the building.

Firefighters were shattering the windows on the building to release people and to clear the interior of toxic fumes.

The cause of the fire is still unknown.

Several people jumped from the windows of the 19-story building in Dhaka's commercial district of Banani to escape Thursday's inferno. Dozens of firefighting units were dispatched to battle the blaze, along with a number of firefighting helicopters that dropped water on the fire from above.

A chopper hovers to evacuate people stuck in a multi-storied office building that caught fire in Dhaka, Bangladesh, March 28, 2019.
A chopper hovers to evacuate people stuck in a multi-storied office building that caught fire in Dhaka, Bangladesh, March 28, 2019.

Helicopters also aided rescue attempts, dangling ropes for people on the roof to grab onto and fly to safety.

At least 70 people have been injured. It is unknown how many people were in the building when the fire started.

Numerous residents have been killed in building fires in Dhaka over the years due to lax safety regulations and enforcement. At least 70 people were killed when a massive fire burned several residential buildings in a historic section of Dhaka last month.

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