MIRAZ reg despatch

The head of the Bangladeshi Civil Aviation Authority has said that tall buildings near the country's airports have become a safety hazard.

The official, Air Commodore Iqbal Hossein, told the BBC that international safety standards were being ignored.

He said that two airports near the capital Dhaka were particularly unsafe because high-rise buildings had mushroomed in the area.

Air-Commodore Hossein said that, if nothing was done to correct the problem, foreign airlines would start avoiding Dhaka.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service