One day after Wednesday's collapse, as hundreds of rescuers clawed through the rubble, the cries of trapped survivors could still occasionally be heard, with the screams of a woman pinned between concrete slabs mingling with the wails of distraught relatives waiting for news or collecting bodies. An enormous section of the concrete structure appeared to have splintered like twigs.
The disaster in the Dhaka suburb of Savar came less than five months after a blaze killed 112 people in a garment factory and underscored the unsafe conditions faced by Bangladesh's garment workers, who produce clothes for global brands worn around the world.
After the cracks were reported Tuesday, managers of a local bank that also had an office in the building evacuated their workers from the site and suspended their operations. But the garment factories continued working, ignoring the instructions of the local industrial police, said Mostafizur Rahman, a director of the industrial police.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association had also asked the factories to suspend work starting Wednesday morning, just hours before the building fell.
"After we got the crack reports, we asked them to suspend work until further examination, but they did not pay heed," said Atiqul Islam, the group's president.
2,000 people rescued from wreckage
On Thursday morning the odour of rotting bodies permeated holes cut into the building and rescue workers continued to search for more survivors and victims. Junior minister for home affairs, Shamsul Haque, said that by late Thursday morning a total of 2,000 people had been rescued from the wreckage.
Brig.-Gen. Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder, who is overseeing army rescue teams, said the death toll had climbed to 194 as of Thursday afternoon.
Dozens of bodies, their faces covered, were laid outside a local school building so relatives could identify them.
The garment manufacturers' group said the factories in the building employed 3,122 workers but it was not clear how many workers were in the building when it collapsed.
A clearer picture of the rescue operation is likely to be available by afternoon, officials said.
Searchers worked through the night to probe the jumbled mass of concrete with drills or their bare hands, passing water and flashlights to people pinned inside.
"I gave them whistles, water, torchlights. I heard them cry," said fire official Abul Khayer late Wednesday, as he prepared to work late into the night.
Abdur Rahim, an employee who worked on the fifth floor, said a factory manager gave assurances that the cracks in the building were no cause for concern, so employees went inside.
"After about an hour or so, the building collapsed suddenly," Rahim said. The next thing he remembered was regaining consciousness outside. 3 storeys added illegally to building, official says.
On a visit to the site, Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir told reporters the building had violated construction codes and that "the culprits would be punished."
Abdul Halim, an official with the engineering department in Savar, said the owner was originally allowed to construct a five-storey building but he added another three storeys illegally.
Local police Chief Mohammed Asaduzzaman said police and the government's Capital Development Authority have filed separate cases of negligence against the building owner.
Thursday 25 April 2013
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/04/25/bangladesh-building-collapse-garment-factories-evacuation-order.html
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