Unknown number of people trapped as fire breaks out at Bangladesh's largest shopping complex

A devastating fire broke out at Bangladesh's largest Bashundhara shopping mall complex, in capital Dhaka on Sunday afternoon, probably leaving an unknown number of people trapped inside the building.

Sources said an unknown number of people are likely trapped inside the burning building though hundreds of people were evacuated from the shopping mall.

A fire department official, who declined to be named said, as many as 14 fire-fighting units have been striving to put out the blaze that broke out on Sunday at about 11:30 a.m. local time on the market's 5th floor, which is jam packed with scores of local and foreign mobile shops.

Bashundhara is 19 stories tall, of which eight are used for the mall and the remainder as the corporate headquarters of the Bashundhara Group, one of the largest industrial conglomerates of Bangladesh.

Shocking TV footage showed huge thick black smoke billowed from the large complex into the air.

The fire drew thousands of onlookers.

There was no loss of life immediately so far.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

Earlier in March 2009 a big fire broke out at the shopping complex which claimed at least seven people's lives and caused huge financial losses.