DHAKA, July 31 (Reuter)- At least 24 people died and more than 100 were injured in a stampede at a multistorey building housing four garment factories in Dhaka, police said on Thursday.
They said the stampede occurred after an electrical short circuit at the Shanghai Apparels factory on Wednesday evening.
"Although there had not been any actual fire, it (the short circuit) caused a severe panic among workers of the Shanghai Apparels and in the three other factories," one police officer said.
"Some 1,000 workers at the factories started scrambling down through narrow stairs causing severe suffocation and many also jumped from fourth floor windows," one fire brigade officer said.
Most of the victims were women, who constitute 90 percent of garment factory workers in Bangladesh.
Five women were declared dead as soon as they were brought to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Wednesday night. At least 19 others died in the night, doctors said.
The death toll may rise, police and hospital sources said.
Police said the workers panicked because eight people had been killed in another garment factory fire in the capital on July 16.