At least 100 people were killed today and 700 injured when an eight-storey building housing four clothing factories collapsed on the outskirts of the Bangladesh capital Dhaka.
The army, emergency workers and volunteers were searching the debris of Rana Plaza for trapped survivors. Television showed young women workers, some semi-conscious, being pulled from the rubble. A fire officer said that about 2,000 people were in the building, which also had shops and a bank, when the upper floors jolted down on top of each other.
Some 600 were freed but the number dead was expected to rise. Rescuers used concrete cutters and cranes to dig through the rubble and dropped water bottles and food to the basements where people were trapped.
A clothing worker said: “We heard a huge noise and the building collapsed within a few minutes.” Another witness said cracks were seen in the building at Savar, 19 miles outside Dhaka, yesterday. Local police chief Mohammad Asaduzzaman told Reuters news agency that factory owners appeared to have ignored a warning not to allow workers in.
“It looks like an earthquake has struck here,” said one resident as he looked on the chaotic scene of smashed concrete and ambulances making their way through the crowds of workers and wailing relatives. Zohra Begum a worker at one of the factories, said: “I was at work on the third floor, and then suddenly I heard a deafening sound, but couldn’t understand what was happening. I ran and was hit by something on my head.”
Bangladesh’s booming garment industry has been plagued by fires and other accidents for years despite a drive to improve safety. Last November 112 workers were killed in a blaze at the Tazreen factory in a nearby industrial suburb.
