Thousands of Bangladeshi workers demanding justice after a garment-factory fire killed at least 112 people blocked the streets of a Dhaka suburb in a protest that has turned violent at times. 
Angry workers on Monday threw stones at factories, smashed vehicles and blocked a major highway in the area. Some 200 factories were closed for the day after the protest erupted in Savar, the industrial zone where Saturday's deadly fire occurred.
Officials say many workers were trapped in the eight-story building, which lacked emergency exits. Some of whom jumped from the eight-storey building where they made clothes for major global retailers.
Investigators suspect that a short circuit caused the fire on Saturday night outside the capital, Dhaka, said Major Mohammad Mahbub, fire department operations director.
"Had there been at least one emergency exit through outside the factory, the casualties would have been much lower," Mahbub said.
Firefighters have pulled out at least 100 bodies, and 12 more people died at hospitals after jumping from the building.
Local media reported that up to 124 people were killed.
Unions in Bangladesh have long complained about unsafe factories where workers work in dismal sweatshop conditions.
Army soldiers and border guards were helping keep order as thousands of onlookers and anxious relatives of the factory workers gathered, Mahbub said.
Relatives of the workers frantically looked for their loved ones. Sabina Yasmine said she saw the body of her daughter-in-law, but had seen no trace of her son, who also worked there.
"Oh, Allah, where's my soul? Where's my son?" wailed Yasmine, who works at another factory in the area. "I want the factory owner to be hanged. For him, many have died, many have gone."
Mahbub said the fire broke out on the ground floor, which was used as a warehouse, and spread quickly to the upper floors. Many workers who retreated to the roof were rescued, he said. But he said that with no emergency exits leading outside the building, many victims were trapped, and firefighters recovered 69 bodies from the second floor alone.
"The factory had three staircases, and all of them were down through the ground floor," Mahbub said. "So the workers could not come out when the fire engulfed the building."
Many victims were burned beyond recognition. The bodies were laid out in rows at a school nearby. Many of them were handed over to families; unclaimed victims were taken to Dhaka Medical College for identification.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed shock at the loss of so many lives.
Neither Tazreen's owner nor Tuba Group officials could be reached for comment.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said it would stand by the victims' families and offered 100,000 takas ($1,250) to each of the families of the dead. The association's acting president, Siddiqur Rahman, said on a late-night talk show early Monday that Tazreen's owner was to meet with group representatives later in the day.
"We will discuss what other things we can do for the families of the dead," Rahman said on Rtv, a private television station. "We are worried about what has happened. We hope to discuss everything in detail in that meeting."
AP