Huge Fire Blazes From Dhaka Office Tower, Rescue Underway

New Delhi (Sputnik): A devastating fire that began on Thursday at a 19-storey office building in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka is still out of control as scores of firefighters including the Bangladesh defence forces have been pressed into service. The incident happened in Banani, an upmarket commercial district in the Bangladeshi capital.

Witnesses said people were seen shouting for help on the upper floors and now viral videos on social media show people falling from the building situated in Dhaka's commercial hub.

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Local media quoted an official in the Fire Department control room, Ershad Hossain, who confirmed that the FR Tower in Dhaka's Banani area caught fire Thursday afternoon.

​Authorities have not confirmed casualties, although, local reports and visuals confirm several people falling from the building trying to escape the fire.

Visuals show people climbing from cables on the exterior of the 19-storey building to escape the fire and there were also people waving to be rescued amid a thick cloud of smoke.

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"Nineteen fire-fighting units are working at the scene. Bangladesh Navy and Air Force have also joined to fight the fire", duty officer Mohammad Russel from Dhaka's central fire service control room told local media.

​Local media visuals confirm the presence of emergency crews at the scene as well as military helicopters. It is feared that several people are still trapped in the building although no number has been yet put out by the administration. 

Seventy people were killed in a similar massive blaze in Dhaka's old quarter. In another major disaster in 2010 in the Nimtoli area of Dhaka, 123 people burned to death. 

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