Rescuers scour mangled heap after Bangladesh building collapse kills 200

 

The resulting catastrophe is the latest to befall Bangladesh's accident-prone garment industry, which employs more than 4 million people -- most of them women -- but regularly comes under scrutiny for its slipshod safety standards.

It also raises tough questions for the Western brands that have their products made in the South Asian country's low-cost factories.

The human tragedy continued to unfold Thursday at the scene of the disaster in the suburb of Savar.

The death toll rose to 199, Dhaka District Police Chief Habibur Rahman said Thursday afternoon.

More than 1,000 people have been injured and an unknown number -- some dead, others still alive -- remain buried within the structure's tangled remains.

"There's still people alive in there," said Col. Shayekh Jaman, a military official involved in the rescue effort. "It is difficult to say how many. We are moving chamber to chamber looking for people."

He said about 1,400 people had been rescued so far.

The army official overseeing the rescue operation, Maj. Gen. Abul Hassan Sarwardy, said the efforts would continue until every single person inside the rubble had been recovered, according to the national news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS).

But Sarwardy cautioned that rescuers proceeded slowly because of fears the structure's ruins could collapse further.

Images from the scene showed rescuers standing on precariously balanced concrete beams and looking through crevices in the wreckage.

National mourning

Flags around the country were flying at half-staff Thursday after the government declared a national day of mourning.

Video from the scene on Wednesday showed injured victims being whisked away on stretchers and crews carrying limp bodies from the ruins of the building.

Some onlookers wept while others frantically searched for missing loved ones, sometimes digging with their bare hands to reach people buried in the wreckage.

Siraj Miah said his wife is missing after going to work Wednesday morning.

"After learning that the building collapsed, I rushed here looking for my wife, but until now I haven't found her," he said.

Abdul Alim, a day laborer, said he heard people screaming inside the building and tried to help them.

"We couldn't make our way to get in," said Alim, one of thousands of onlookers who tried to reach trapped victims before military, fire and civil defense rescuers arrived at the scene.

Authorities say they have not determined what caused the building to collapse.

Workers told to enter

Workers from the garment factories said after the cracks were discovered Tuesday, managers initially ordered them not to report to work the next day.

But factory owners later reversed the order, telling employees that the building was safe, said Marjina Begum, who worked on the sixth floor.

Many workers were hesitant to show up Wednesday, but reported to work because they were afraid of losing their jobs, she said. More than a dozen other workers corroborated her story.

Managers for the garment manufacturers housed inside the building could not be reached for comment.

M. Atiqul Islam, president of the garment manufacturers association, said owners kept the factories open after the building's owner assured them that there would be no problems with the cracks.

The national news agency reported that the owners of the factories and the building had gone into hiding. They are facing separate cases from regulators and police over the construction of the building and the exposure of the workers to the fatal accident, the agency said.

Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir said the building hadn't been constructed in compliance with safety regulations.

Employees of a bank branch were removed from the building Tuesday after a crack was detected and were ordered not to show up on Wednesday, according to a statement from the bank cited by the news agency. None of the bank's workers were among the injured or dead, it said.

In addition, a strike had shut a mall housing hundreds of shops on the building's two lowest floors.