At least 40 people were injured in a stampede when garment workers panicked by a false fire alarm rushed to get out of a factory in the city's Kalurghat industrial area yesterday afternoon.

As the fire alarm went off at around 12:30pm, over 1400 workers of two factories of Azim Group, Dress Shirt Limited and Men's Fashion Limited, on the fourth and sixth floors of a six-storey building scrambled to getout of the factory, witnesses said.

Some of them fell on the staircases and were trampled by others as everyone was hurrying out, which left 40 people injured.

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A few workers also jumped from the second and third floors of the building, witnesses said.

Masum, executive (Admin) of Azim Group, said there was no fire incident at the factory but someone set the alarm off after a transformer had burst near the building.

Twenty of the injured received treatment at the medical centre of the factory while others were sent to Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH), he said.

He also said more than 5,000 workers were on duty at 10 factories of the same company in the building during the incident. Workers on the other floors were made aware of the false alarm and prevented from joining the mad rush, Masum added.

Production at the factories resumed at about 1:30pm.

Of the injured, the condition of one identified as Hasina Begum was stated to be critical, CMCH sources said.