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At least nine people have been killed in a fire at a clothing factory near the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, the BBC reported, citing emergency officials. 

Local media said about 50 people had been hurt in the fire, which broke out late on Tuesday in Gazipur.

It was feared the number of people killed could rise.

Safety standards in Bangladesh's garment factories are notoriously poor. More than 1,100 people died in April when a factory outside Dhaka collapsed.

Another 2,500 people were injured in the disaster in the Ashulia district on the outskirts of the capital, where most of the clothing industry is based.

Last November, 112 workers were killed in a fire at another clothes factory in the area.

The cause of the latest fire was not immediately clear, but reports said it broke out at a knitting section of Aswad Composite Mills.

A local official at the scene said that fire fighters had been unable to recover any bodies.

Reports quoted officials saying water shortages and a lack of nearby fire stations had allowed the blaze to escalate and continue for several hours.

Factory Director Emdad Hossain told the Daily Star in Bangladesh that 170 workers were on duty on the two floors when the fire broke out.

"Almost all of them managed to come out of the building," he said.