About 20 people were killed, and more than 100 injured in a fire at a garment factory near the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, the local television channels reported.

Firefighters are trying to extinguish the fire, and rescuing teams are searching for the injured and evacuating trapped workers, an official from the fire-department said.

In the fire at the 12-storey factory building at Ashulia, 25 km north of Dakha, at least 50 people received serious burns, and some of the workers were injured in a stampede, as several hundreds of people tried to escape the fire.

Soldiers from a nearby military district joined the rescuing operation, and air force helicopters were also used.

More than 10,000 workers, most of them women, worked when the fire started, but luckily, many of them were out for lunch, official from the factory Arifa Ahmed stated.

The fire broke out on the ninth floor and spread quickly, its cause still being unknown, the Reuters Agency reported.