Deadly fire hits office tower in Dhaka

A huge blaze has broken out in a high-rise building in an upmarket commercial area of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka.

Fire crews are at the scene, backed by members of the navy and air force.

People were seen shouting for help from windows, video footage from the scene showed, while at least six people jumped out of the burning tower, the Daily Star newspaper reported.

Helicopters dropped water on the burning building from above while hundreds of panicked onlookers crowded the streets in the upmarket commercial district of Banani.

Shoikot Rahman ran to safety after hearing colleagues raise the alarm, narrowly escaping the smoke and flames engulfing the building.

"When I heard a fire broke out in the building, I quickly rushed out of the building," he told agency.

"Many of my colleagues are still trapped in the office."

There was no official word on how many people were trapped inside, however.

Large fires are relatively common in Bangladesh, owing to lax safety regulations and poor building conditions. Hundreds of people have been killed in recent years.

Last month, a fire in a slum in the coastal city of Chittagong killed at least nine people.

Dhaka, with a population of more than 18 million, is one of the world's most densely populated cities. Some 3.5 million of its people live in slums, according to the World Bank.