A Bangladeshi court has issued arrest warrants for two owners of a clothing factory and four of their employees on homicide charges over the deaths of 112 workers in a fire last year.

The High Court in Bangladesh’s capital today asked authorities to prevent the owner of a garment factory where 112 people died in a fire last year from leaving the country, a lawyer said.

A Bangladesh garment factory producing clothes for Wal-Mart, Disney and other major Western companies lost its fire safety certification in June, five months before a blaze killed 112 workers, fire officials said today.

The owner of a Bangladesh clothing factory where a fire killed 112 people has said he never realised it was supposed to have a special emergency exit.

At least 38 people were killed and hundreds injured when tornadoes tore through northern Bangladesh blowing away thousands of flimsy huts, officials said today.