An eight-storey block housing factories and a shopping center collapsed on the outskirts of the Bangladeshi capital on Wednesday, April 24 killing more than 70 people and injuring hundreds, a government official said, according to Reuters.

Fire fighters and army personnel worked frantically through the morning at the Rana Plaza building in Savar, 30 km (19 miles) outside Dhaka, to rescue people trapped inside.

One fireman told Reuters that about 2,000 people were in the building when the upper floors jolted down on top of each other.

Bangladesh's booming garment industry has been plagued by fires and other accidents for years, despite a drive to improve safety standards. In November last year, 112 workers were killed in a blaze at a factory in an industrial suburb of Dhaka.