Fire breaks out at Bangladesh garments factory, no casualties

DHAKA (Reuters) - A fire broke out at garment factory in the Bangladeshi capital on Thursday but no one was in the building at the time and there were no casualties, a police official said. Fire-fighters were trying to put out the blaze with the help of police and volunteers, officials said. "The factory closed for business at 5 p.m. and the fire broke out at 5.40," a police official at Hazari Bag station told Reuters. Garments are a vital sector for the South Asian nation, whose low wages and duty-free access to Western markets have helped make it the world's largest apparel exporter after China. But a series of deadly incidents, including a building collapse that killed more than 1,100 people last April, has sparked global concern over weak safety standards in the $22 billion industry. (Reporting By Serajul Quadir; Editing by Nick Macfie)