Seven female garment workers were killed and 50 others injured in a stampede as hundreds of workers panicked over a fire nearby tried to rush out of the building housing six garment factories at Mirpur in the capital on Monday.

The tragic incident followed a fire from an electric transformer blast near the seven-storied Misco Super Market building that houses the garment factories, witnesses said.

"As people outside the building raised alarm that a fire has broken out, workers of all six garment factories got panicked and made a dcs-

perate bid to move out through the narrow staircase. This led to the deaths and injuries in stampede," said Bulbuli Begum of Shifa Apparels, one of the factories.

Some workers suffered injuries as they jumped off the verandahs as the gate of the staircase was closed, witnesses said.

IWo workers — Mayna Akhter of Shifa Apparels and Monira Begum of Omega Sweaters - died on the spot.

Some 20 others lying unconscious near the locked collapsible gate on the ground floor of the building were rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) and local clinics.

Five of them — Amena Begum, Khadiza Begum, Parveen Akhter and Begum of Shifa Apparels and Rina Akhter of Omega Sweaters -- were declared dead on arrival at the DMCH.

The injured workers are from all the six factories -- Peerless Garments, Medler Garments, Surma Apparels, Festive Garments, Shifa Apparels and Omega Sweaters.

Some locals said the trolley transformer of Dhaka Electric Supply Company (Desco) exploded at about 10:00am, causing a fire that spread to garment by-products piled up nearby. They mentioned that a religious programme organised by Anjumane Rahmaniya Mayeenia Maiz Bhandari was going on in front of the building at the time. The garments workers could not come out as volunteers of Ahle Sunnat Waal Jamaat closed the collapsible gate of the building to hold the programme conveniently.

Mohammed Ali, director of Peerless garments, said, " Mostof the factories have emergency exits. But the workers did not use those." He added that the workers could not go out quickly as volunteers had closed the collapsible gate on the ground floor.

Owners of the five other factories were not available at the spot.

Security man at the building Md Kanchan Miah claimed the gate was not closed.

Abdul Qaium, a microbus driver who was present at the spot at the time of the incident, said he took 13 workers to hospital (DMCH). Five cars also took the dead and the injured to the hospital.

"But the victims did not get proper care at the hospital as owners of the garment factories did not bother to care for their treatment," he alleged.

Relatives received the victims' bodies from the DMCH on Monday night.

Meanwhile, Desco sources denied that their transformer was faulty." The fire originated from the pile of waste cloths, burnt the wire of the transformer that led to the blast," said Farid Uddin Ahamed, an engineer working on the transformer later.

Earlier in 2001, 17 garment workers were killed and 50 others injured in a stampede following a false fire alarm atafactoryinMirpur.

UNB adds: Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and owners of the two garment factories will compensate the families of the seven workers killed in the incident.

"Family members of the dead workers, who are covered under group insurance under the management of BGMEA, will get compensation as per the provision of insurance," said a BGMEAstatement signed by its Secretary Md Fasihur Rahman.

The BGMEA expressed its deep shock at the tragic accident.

The statement said BGMEA has already arranged treatment of the injured workers. It promised to provide job to adult (if any) members of the victims'families.