DHAKA, Feb 26: At least two people died Monday and scores more had to be plucked to safety by helicopter as a fire swept through a packed office block in the Bangladesh capital, officials said.

Army helicopters raced against the clock to save workers screaming for help from the top of the 13-storey building as the blaze raged beneath them. Dozens of people were injured and taken to hospital, police said.

Rescuers were hampered by walls of flames and choking black smoke billowing from the building, a well-known media centre that houses two private television stations and a newspaper. An estimated 2,000 people work in the block.

“It was a hell-like situation,” said Samia Raman from NTV, the country's biggest private television network, who managed to get out.

A man and a woman who both jumped from the sixth floor died, hospital officials said.

Others trapped on lower floors smashed windows and jumped or climbed down cables to save themselves from the inferno, said local police chief Jane Alam.

Several hundred more were rescued by firefighters using ladders.

“About 60 of us were working on the sixth floor and all of a sudden we saw smoke all over our floor. We ran to the balconies and cried for help. It was like hell,” said Jashim Uddin, a cameraman with NTV's sister network RTV.

Another man who was trapped on the sixth floor said he used a cable to escape.

“I became desperate when I saw the inferno on my floor. I went to the window and got hold of a cable and came down using it as a rope,” he said.

Officials said the blaze took four hours to contain.—AFP