People trapped in blazing tower block ‘jump to their death trying to escape’ in Bangladesh 

A huge fire tore through a 19-storey commercial building in Dhaka today, with many office workers still feared trapped in the major inferno in the Bangladesh capital.

Horrifying footage from the scene shows people falling from the upper stories of the burning tower, while others shout for help from windows.   

One video posted on social media shows a man tumbling from a cable as he and several others tried scale down the exterior of the building.  

Intense flames and thick black smoke was pouring out of the building on Thursday afternoon, though what caused the blaze was not immediately clear. 

A trapped person waves to be rescued amid a thick cloud of smoke after the office building fire in Dhaka 

At least 19 fire fighting units joined the operation to douse the blaze and rescue the people trapped inside

Firetrucks hose down a building on fire in the Banani area on Thursday afternoon. The cause of the blaze was not immediately clear

Photographs from social media showed people clinging to cables on the building’s exterior as they tried to climb to safety. 

Helicopters dropped water on the burning FR tower 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 said. 

Fire Department control room official Ershad Hossain said by phone the FR Tower in Dhaka’s Banani commercial district caught fire Thursday afternoon and at least 19 fire fighting units joined the operation to douse the blaze

People are still being rescued as hundreds of panicked workers crowded in the streets of Dhaka 

A person looks on as firefighters attempt to extinguish a fire at a multi-storey commercial building

A rescued person is taken to the ambulance and people and emergency services fill the streets of Dhaka’s commercial district 

Locals help firefighters carry the hose to douse the enormous fire that ripped through the 19-storey building on Thursday 

Reports say that several people were seen falling, while others tried to climb down ropes, from 19-storied FRTower in Banani while trying to escape the blaze

A huge cloud of smoke was seen billowing from the scene of the fire at FR Tower on Kamal Ataturk Road in Banani, Dhaka on Thursday 

‘Many of my colleagues are still trapped in the office.’

Witness Sajib Hasan said he saw people shouting for help from windows on the upper floors.

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

Scores of fire fighters in at least 19 units were backed by navy and air force experts with helicopters, duty officer Mohammad Russel from Dhaka’s central fire service control room said. 

There was no immediate confirmation of casualties.

Emergency crews were on the scene as well as military helicopters, amid fears that people remain trapped in the building 

RedCrescent volunteers were providing necessary first aid and and assisting the Fire Service and Civil Defence

An official in the Fire Department control room says the fire had broken out in an office building in Bangladesh’s capital, and some people are feared trapped inside

Smoke rises after fire broke out at a high-rise in Dhaka’s Banani district – which is yet to be brought under control even after three hours of efforts

A massive blaze in Dhaka’s old quarter last month killed at least 70 people and injured 50 others.

Fire service officials said a warehouse of deodorant and granular plastic in one of the five buildings that caught fire fuelled that inferno, which took more than 12 hours to control.

The disaster recalled a June 2010 fire in the nearby neighbourhood of Nimtoli in which 123 people were killed.