PRIMARK is to begin paying £5.4 million in long-term compensation to victims of the Rana Plaza factory collapse that killed more than 1100 people in Bangladesh last April.

The clothing chain will make the payments to 580 workers or their families from the Primark supplier New Wave Bottoms who died or were injured as a result of the collapse. The firm occupied the second floor of the eight-storey building.

The retail chain, part of Associated British Foods, is also making a further payment of £602,000 to workers in its competitors' supply chain. This will be paid to the Rana Plaza Donors Trust Fund and is in addition to the £1.2m which Primark has already distributed to workers or their families.

The funding pot is being coordinated by the International Labour Organisation. However, it is believed to still be a long way short of its £24.1m target.