The death toll from a fire in a clothes factory in Bangladesh has leapt to at least 120, officials say. The fire broke out late on Saturday in the nine-floor Tazreen Fashion factory in the Ashulia district on the outskirts of the capital Dhaka.

Some people died having jumped from the building trying to escape the flames.

It is still unclear what caused the blaze, which reportedly started on the second floor trapping many victims on the floors above.

Earlier reports said eight people had been killed in the fire, but the scale of the tragedy became clear when rescue workers entered the building on Sunday.

"We resumed our search this morning and found the bodies lying on different floors of the factory building," Brigadier General Abu Nayeem Mohammad Shahidullah of the Dhaka fire brigade told AFP news agency.

Fatal fires are common in Bangladesh's large garment manufacturing sector.

Lax safety standards, poor wiring and overcrowding are blamed for causing several deadly factory fires every year.

In December 2010, a similar fire in another clothes factory in the same industrial zone killed at least 25 people and was caused by a wiring problem.

There are around 4,500 factories in Bangladesh, employing more than two million people.

Clothes account for up to 80% of Bangladesh's $24bn (£15bn) annual exports.(BBC)