13 died in explosion at Lindex factory in Bangladesh

BangladeshBangladeshi rescuers stand on the debris after a Monday evening boiler explosion at a garment factory owned by export-oriented Multifabs Ltd. at Kashimpur area in Gazipur district, outside capital Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, July 4, 2017. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)

13 perished in an explosion at a Lindex factory in Bangladesh

 

The number of people killed after Monday’s explosion at a textile factory in Bangladesh has risen to 13. The factory made clothes for Swedish Lindex.

 

The explosion supposedly occurred in connection with repair work on a water heater, but the cause of the accident has not been established.

Most of the workers at the factory were free in connection with the Muslims’ celebration of id and production at the factory was not started when the accident occurred.

 Factory inspection in April

Lindex Bangladesh School of Hope. Photo Lindex

Parts of the six-story high building collapsed as a result of the explosion, and several adjacent buildings were also damaged.

The factory is owned by Multifabs, which is one of the Swedish Stockmann group’s subcontractors. According to a press release from Stockmann, the factory is one of Lindex’s leading suppliers.

– We are looking seriously at the accident, the company said in a statement.

According to Stockman, a factory inspection was carried out in April, and then it got “good” as no significant deviations were found in relation to the demands made by the Swedish group to its subcontractors.

Poor working conditions

Bangladesh has over 4,500 textile factories which employ around 4 million people, the vast majority of them women. The minimum salary is just over NOK 570 a month.

Many of the textile factories are known to have poor working conditions, lack ventilation and take little account of employee health and safety.

In April of 2013, more than 1,100 workers died when the Rana Plaza factory collapsed in Bangladesh. This was one of the worst industrial accidents the world has experienced.

 

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today