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A minimum of 16 persons have died after a massive fire started at a garment factory in Bangladesh, with officials cautioning that the death toll could climb.

Sixteen bodies have been found but were charred impossible to identify, the fire department said.

Grief-stricken relatives converged outside the four-storey factory in Dhaka's Mirpur area on that day in looking for their loved ones still missing.

The inferno, which broke out at the factory around lunchtime, was brought under control after multiple hours. But an neighboring chemical warehouse kept burning, emergency services said.

Until 21:00 local time (15:00 GMT) on Tuesday, the fire at the chemical warehouse had not been entirely put out, journalistic accounts reported.

Fire service officials have not ascertained which of the two buildings ignited initially.

According to bystanders, the chemical warehouse housed bleaching powder, plastic materials and industrial peroxide, all of which can accelerate fires. Polymer products also produces toxic fumes when burned.

Law enforcement and armed forces are still attempting to find the operators of the factory and the warehouse, emergency services head the department director informed reporters.

An probe on whether the warehouse was functioning with proper authorization is also ongoing, he noted.

Tearful family members waited outside the fire-damaged buildings, many of them grasping photographs of their lost relatives.

Present at the scene is a man looking frantically for his daughter, his loved one.

"When I heard about the fire, I hurried to the scene. But I still cannot locate her... I just want my child back," he expressed to journalists.

The catastrophic occurrence has once again highlighted the security issues plaguing Bangladesh's clothing sector, which provides jobs for countless of workers and is a significant provider of economic income for the South Asian economy.