Rana Plaza death toll now at 1,126

Officials say 1,126 dead bodies have so far been pulled out of the wreckage of the ill-fated Rana Plaza which collapsed on Apr 24.

The death toll is being updated by a temporary control room run by the district administration at the local Adhar Chandra High School in Savar, close to the collapsed highrise.

Until now, 826 dead bodies have been handed over to their relatives, control room officials said.

Bodies recovered from the wreckage are taken to the school grounds for identification.

At the moment, fourteen bodies are still there waiting to be identified.

Another 52 unidentified bodies are still at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue.

So far, 234 unclaimed bodies have been buried at the Jurain graveyard in the capital.

Their DNA samples have been collected for future identification.

The nine-story Rana Plaza caved in on Apr 24 morning with thousands trapped inside. Most of them were women workers employed in the five readymade garment factories operating from the Rana Plaza.

One such women worker Reshma Akter was pulled out alive from the rubble seventeen days after the collapse in what appeared to be a near-miracle.

Rescuers have nearly finished clearing the rubble on the front side of the building.

From May 7 night they started to clear the wreckage at the back of the building.

Most of the bodies recovered now are decomposed beyond recognition. Rescuers are trying to identify them from the mobile phones or identity cards if found on them.

Leading the rescue operation is General Officer Commanding (GOC) of Bangladesh Army's 9th Infantry Division Major General Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy.

At a press conference on May 1, he had claimed that only 149 were missing. But over the past 10 days 688 bodies had been pulled out from the wreckage.

The rescuers are still pulling out bodies from the wreckage.

Those survived the collapse, claimed that more than 5,500 people worked in the shops and factories in the ill-fated Rana Plaza.

Sunday 12 May 2013

http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2013/05/12/rana-plaza-death-toll-now-at-1126