Rescue workers in Bangladesh have given up hopes of finding any more survivors, after a fire delayed their efforts to dig into the rubble of a building that collapsed five days ago.
Officials leading the operation said on Monday they doubt they will save any more lives, after they failed to rescue a young woman named Shahanaz, whom they believe was the last remaining survivor.
"We found a woman alive," Mustafa Kamal, a volunteer rescue operator, told Al Jazeera. "When we went to rescue her, an outsider joined the operation with a metal grinder, and from there it sparked, it led to a fire, and she died”.
The firefighters managed to put out the fire, but the smoke spread to several floors leading them to believe that there are no more survivors. The blaze also injured at least six rescuers.
"There is little hope of finding anyone alive. Our men went inside and saw some dead bodies in the ground floor. But no one was seen alive,'' said Brigadier General Ali Ahmed Khan, the chief of the fire brigade at the scene.
On Monday, rescuers began using heavy machinery to remove the rubble and look for bodies.
Major-General Hasan Suhrawardy, chief of the rescue operation, said the crew was using cranes and other heavy equipment "very carefully with a priority to save the survivors, if any".
Confusion over deaths, missing
Savar police Inspector Aminur Rahman put the count in Wednesday's Rana Plaza collapse at 377 at around 3pm. He earlier had said the figure was 397.
"There was some mistake in the count," the police officer in charge at the Adhar Chandra School – the place where bodies were being kept – said.
He added a total of 320 bodies were handed over to the relatives and 57 more, awaiting recognition, were sent to the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital and Mitford Hospital.
Similar 'confusions' were also looming over the number of people still missing.
Although, authorities earlier said the number is 1168, Sub-Inspector Abdul Alim said they were not being able to count the number properly at this moment due to "lack of time."
Monir Hossain, Savar district’s Assistant Superintendent of Police, however, said they had started making a list on computers from Sunday.
The rescue at the site is being carried out quite loosely.
About 2,500 survivors have been accounted for.
Monday 29 April 2013
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2013/04/2013428141142643708.html
http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2013/04/28/confusion-over-deaths-missing
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