A five-storey building has collapsed in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, leaving at least 15 dead and 50 injured.

Soldiers have been brought in to help police and firefighters search for anyone still trapped. Locals say 200 people may have been in the building.

Officials say the building caved in as renovation work was being carried out.

It comes o­nly two days after a fire swept through a textile mill in the south-eastern port city of Chittagong, killing more than 50 people.

Last April, more than 60 people died when an illegally-constructed garment factory collapsed near Dhaka.

'Swallowed up'

The BBC's Waliur Rahman in Dhaka says the latest building to collapse was being renovated for use as a hospital after a garment factory moved out. (!!!!)

Locals say more than 200 people may have been inside the building when it started to crumble.

Senior army officer Nizam Ahmed, who has been overseeing the rescue operation, told the BBC that he feared many might still be trapped.

Shahidul Islam told the AFP news agency he had seen the building crumble as he carried back tea for his boss.

"The first two floors of the building were swallowed by the ground which gave way within just a few minutes," he said.

"Some people who were working in the front portion of the building managed to escape before the building collapsed."

Dhaka: At least 51 people, mostly women, were killed and over 100 injured in a major fire that broke out in a textile factory in Bangladesh�s southeastern port city of Chittagong, officials said o­n Friday. The fire swept through the KTS Composite Textile factory crowded with at least 500 night-shift workers, most of them women, o­n Thursday night, they said.

"A total of 51 people, 45 of them women, died so far in the blaze," a police official told reporters outside the factory building which was still emitting smoke.

More than 100 others were also injured in the fire which broke out apparently due to an electric short circuit.

We the National Garment Workers Federation , Bangladesh ( NGWF ), are a national trade union federation of garment workers in Bangladesh. o­n behalf of our 20,000 members we are writing to protest strongly against the arrest of GEFONT Chair Mukunda Neupane and its Secretary General Binod Shrestha along with former Health minister Dr.Mathura Prasad , trade unionists from NTUC Manju Bhattarai & Radheshyam Pathak and NNTA Vice President Mr. Baburam Thapa. We are outraged by this move and condemn your government's continued attack o­n the democratic rights of the Nepalese people. It is of course a welcome news for us that GEFONT Chairman Mukunda Neupane and two NTUC colleagues have been released. However, GEFONT Secretary General Binod Shrestha remains in detention, after his arrest before the dawn of January 19 at his own residence andhas been handed over detention orders of 90 days. Similarly your administration has unnecessarily arrested NTUC central leader Ms. Manju Bhattarai o­n the afternoon of Jan 20 and its Nawalparasi district leader Mr. Radheshyam Pathak from his residence; where as Vice President of Nepal National Teachers Union (NNTA) Mr. Babu Ram Thapa has been arrested at a time while NNTA was holding central committee meeting in its own HQ.

Nearly after o­ne month, GEFONT Secretary General Binod Shrestha has been released from the detention today. Along with Com. Binod, GEFONT Gandaki Zonal Committee member Nar Bahadur K.C as well has been released from Pokhara by the order of Court. From this release, except Ram Prasad Mandal- memebr of GEFONT Janakpur Zone, all of 34 detained GEFONT cadres have been released.

Among those released today are NTUC member Shyam Khatri and NNTA Vice-president Babu Ram Thapa along with 21 other political leaders & cadres.