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A minimum of 16 individuals have lost their lives after a massive fire broke out at a apparel factory in Bangladesh, with emergency services warning that the fatality count could rise.

Sixteen bodies have been retrieved but were incinerated unrecognizable, the fire service stated.

Distraught relatives assembled outside the multi-story factory in Dhaka's Mirpur area on Tuesday in seeking their loved ones still not found.

The blaze, which started at the factory around lunchtime, was extinguished after several hours. But an adjacent chemical warehouse kept burning, authorities said.

Until 21:00 local time (15:00 GMT) that day, the fire at the chemical warehouse had not been fully extinguished, journalistic accounts reported.

Fire service officials have not established which of the two buildings was the origin point.

Per bystanders, the chemical warehouse contained industrial bleaches, synthetic polymers and chemical peroxide, all of which can intensify fires. Plastic also releases hazardous smoke when burned.

Security personnel are still attempting to find the proprietors of the factory and the warehouse, fire department chief the fire service official told reporters.

An probe on whether the warehouse was running according to regulations is also ongoing, he mentioned.

Weeping family members waited outside the burned buildings, many of them grasping photographs of their unaccounted for relatives.

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

"When I learned of the fire, I hurried to the scene. But I still cannot locate her... I just want my loved one back," he told news media.

The devastating event has once again underscored the hazardous conditions facing Bangladesh's garment industry, which engages countless of workers and is a major contributor to foreign revenue for the nation.