Dhaka building collapse: Woman pulled alive from rubble

Rescue workers in Bangladesh said Friday they found a female survivor buried amid the wreckage of a garment factory building that collapsed 17 days ago and killed more than 1,000.

Army officials ordered workers to stop clearing the site with bulldozers and cranes as they tried to free a woman they said might still be alive. A soldier at the scene said rescuers found a woman in the debris and she waved her hand in response to them.

Rescuers used a handsaw as well as welding and drilling equipment to try to cut through the iron rod and debris trapping her. They asked for a small oxygen cylinder to be brought to the site.

Hundreds of people, who had been engaged in the grim job of removing decomposing bodies from the site, raised their hands together to pray to Allah for the woman to be freed alive. A man on a loudspeaker led the supplicants: "Allah, you are the greatest, you can do anything. Please allow us all to rescue the survivor just found."

"We seek apology for our sins. Please pardon us, pardon the person found alive," he said.

The head of the fire service earlier said the woman, named Reshma, had been found in the remains of the second floor of the eight-storey Rana Plaza.

She had no serious injuries and had been talking with rescuers, he added.

The dramatic news came after the army said more than 1,000 people were now known to have died in the disaster.

The death toll is expected to keep climbing, as work crews using heavy machinery have begun removing rubble from the worst-damaged areas.

On Friday afternoon, as soldiers cleared a floor, they heard sounds below, correspondents say.

Officers immediately ordered workers to stop clearing the site.

Detection equipment was sent in and they saw a woman waving her hand. She shouted "I'm still here" and said her name was Reshma.

Within minutes, hundreds of soldiers and firefighters rushed to the scene to help clear the rubble, says the BBC Bengali service's Akbar Hossain.

Cutting and drilling equipment was brought in to get through iron rods and debris. Not long afterwards, she was pulled from the rubble and the crowd erupted in cheers, our correspondent says.

The woman was taken to an ambulance and then rushed to a nearby military hospital.

Rescuers said it was possible that the woman survived because of the large quantities of oxygen and water that were pumped into the ruins in the early stages of the rescue effort.

Workers at the site had been clearing the rubble since the collapse April 24. More than 2,500 people were rescued in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. However, no survivors have been found in the wreckage since April 28.

Death toll still rising

The death toll from a garment factory building that collapsed more than two weeks ago outside the Bangladeshi capital soared past 1,000 on Friday, while the list of the dead from a fresh fire at a sweater manufacturer showed the entanglement of the industry and top Bangladeshi officials.

Officials said 1,034 bodies have been recovered from the rubble of the fallen factory building as of Friday morning. There was no sign of where the toll might finally settle as more bodies were being found, but it is already the world's deadliest garment industry disaster and one of the worst industrial accidents.

The country's powerful garment industry has been plagued by a series of disasters in recent months, including a November fire at the Tazreen factory that killed 112 and the building collapse. DNA testing needed to ID remains

More than two weeks after the building in the suburb of Savar collapsed, workers with cranes and other heavy equipment were still pulling apart the rubble and finding more bodies. On Friday, authorities said the death toll had risen to 1,021 and it was unclear how many more people remained missing. More than 2,500 people were rescued alive after the April 24 accident.

Maj. Ohiduzzaman, an army official who uses only one name, said 100 decomposing bodies have been kept at a makeshift morgue at a school and were to be sent to hospitals in Dhaka for DNA testing to identify them.

Friday 10 May 2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22477414

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/05/10/bangladesh-death-toll-over-1000-friday.html

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New mass grave haunts Kashmiris

The members of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), demand the whereabouts of their missing relatives, who have been subjected to enforced custodial disappearance allegedly by Indian forces during the past two decades of conflict.

The traumatized relatives of these missing persons lay the blame on the state and central government for their plight.

Human rights groups claim that around 8000 people have been subjected to enforced disappearance by Indian forces in this Muslim-majority region. They believe that many of the disappeared persons may have been buried in these 'unmarked' graves.

On May 6, during a debate in the European Parliament on the human rights policy, a member of the European Parliament, Sajjad Haider Karim accused the European Union of double standards over the issue of mass graves in Kashmir.

Stating that the discovery of mass graves has put India under great pressure, Karim called for an investigation on this issue in Kashmir.

According to the International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir, there are more than 7000 unmarked graves dotting the lush-green landscape of this beautiful valley.

A human rights organization - Joint Voices of Victims - has discovered more than 60 unidentified mass graves in central Kashmir’s Budgam and Srinagar districts alone.

Even as authorities claim that the graves carry bodies of foreign militants killed in counter insurgency operations, the relatives of missing persons have reiterated their demand for immediate DNA profiling to identify bodies discovered in these mass graves.

International rights watchdog bodies, namely United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and Amnesty International have repeatedly criticized India for its poor human rights record in this region.

Political observers believe the excessive powers given to soldiers under draconian laws like Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) are the cause of the human rights abuses happening there with a sense of impunity.

Kashmir is a subject of dispute between India and Pakistan and the two countries have fought three wars over this disputed region. India blames Pakistan for supporting separatist rebellion in the Muslim majority territory. According to human right groups more than 70,000 people have lost their lives in conflict in Kashmir since late 1980s.

The distraught relatives of missing persons in Kashmir have appealed to the UN to set up a monitoring group in the region. The move, observers believe, can go a long way in addressing the issue of grave human rights abuses in the region but could be a positive step in keeping unruly soldiers under control.

Friday 10 May 2013

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/05/09/302681/new-mass-grave-haunts-kashmiris/

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Thursday marks the 33rd anniversary of the Skyway disaster

On May 9th, 1980, dozens of people died after plunging off the Skyway and into Tampa Bay just seconds after it was hit by an out of control freighter.

In the middle of a fierce storm the 600-foot Summit Venture tried to make it under the Skyway Bridge at 7:30am. Winds up to 50 miles an hour blew it off course and into the old bridge's concrete supports, sending the southbound span crashing into the bay.

Drivers heading south into Manatee County, blinded by heavy rain, could not see the deadly void in front of them. Eight vehicles, including a Greyhound bus carrying 22 passengers, plunged 150 feet into the water. 35 people died that day.

One man, Wesley MacIntire, survived the fall when his car landed on the deck of the Summit Venture before falling into the bay.

The pilot of the ship, John Lerro, was cleared of wrongdoing by both a state grand jury and a Coast Guard investigation.

For years later, drivers using what was left of the Skyway had to relive the disaster and the horror experienced by those who died by viewing the missing middle span of the southbound lanes.

The fishing piers on each side of the bay are all that remain of the old bridge. The new Sunshine Skyway Bridge that we use today opened in April, 1987.

Friday 10 May 2013

http://www.mysuncoast.com/news/local/thursday-marks-the-rd-anniversary-of-the-skyway-disaster/article_d9464c30-b8f3-11e2-a817-0019bb30f31a.html

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Savar death toll rises to 967, burial for 76 unclaimed bodies

The number of people who died at Savar’s Rana Plaza collapse climbed to 967 on Thursday.

A total of 149 dead bodies were retrieved from the ruins on the 16th day of the rescue operation, from the first hours of the day until 6:30pm in the evening.

The makeshift camp in front of the fallen structure released the latest death count on Thursday.

As many as 698 bodies have been handed over to relatives ever since the collapse on Apr 24.

Meanwhile, 76 dead bodies have been laid to rest at Jurain Graveyard with the help of Anjuman Mofidul Islam in two phases from noon to nightfall on Thursday.

DNA samples were collected from these unclaimed bodies before they were given to Anjuman from the morgues at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital and Sir Salimullah Medical College and Hospital, District Administrator Mohammad Yusuf Harun has said.

He said Anjuman so far have buried 80 bodies and 16 alone on Tuesday.

The Dhaka district administration’s control room at Adhar Chandra High School said still 75 dead bodies were kept on the school’s playground. There are 38 bodies at the Dhaka Medical College Morgue.

A total of 156 victims have been buried at Jurain Graveyard so far.

Rana Plaza collapsed on Apr 24 with around 5000 employees who used to work for the five readymade garment factories in the hazardous building.

Rescuers were able to remove the debris from the front of the fallen nine-storey structure. Rescue operations at the back of the building began on last Wednesday night. The debris from even one of the storeys could not be removed from there.

The rescue operation might take a few more days, according to Fire Brigade officials.

Most of the bodies being recovered are mangled. The dead are now being identified through ID cards or cell phones if they are found with the body.

With the death toll in the Rana Plaza tragedy climbing over the past days, the number of unidentified bodies has mounted as those trapped in the rubble have decomposed beyond identification.

Sixteen days into the incident, district administration officials said that the job of handing over the bodies is becoming increasingly difficult, as it needed to be confirmed that the bodies were going to the right families. Now, ID cards and mobile phones have become tools for identification.

Some bodies are too decomposed to even determine sex and these can only be identified byDNA tests. As a result many families, who were waiting at Adhar Chandra High School’s field,had to leave without their relatives’ body.

According to district administration officials, 98 bodies were kept at the field for identification while around 100 bodies were heldat Dhaka Medical College and Mitford Hospital’s morgue.

“The bodies coming to the field are difficult to recognise. Even relatives are getting confused identifying their loved ones,” said Akhtaruzzaman Bhuiyan Shahin, a Rover Scout leader whose team was assisting the administration in the identification procedure.

Kamrul Hassan, UNO of Savar upazila said: “On some occasions, relatives claim bodies from the victim’s clothes, physical shape or ornaments. But the administration cannot handover bodies depending on these, as they might be common.”

Talking to the Dhaka tribune a number of relatives also expressed the same view.

“I am confused. Everything (salwar and kameez) except the scarf on one of the bodies’ matched my wife’s. Maybe the rescuers wrapped her with another person’s scarf while pulling her out of the rubble,” said Md Fazlur Miah, husband of Parvin Begum, who worked on the third floor of the collapsed Rana Plaza.

A civil rescuer, Zia Uddin, said that they are now finding a huge number of bones and flesh.

“We gather the scattered body parts and try to give them shape. In some cases we just collect them from different places and put them in body-bags and send it to Adhar Chandra field,” he said.

Like previous days, yesterday many people with photographs and ID cards of missing workers were still waiting at the Adhar Chandra High School playground for the remains.

Friday 10 May 2013

http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2013/05/09/savar-death-toll-rises-to-967

http://dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2013/may/10/authorities-families-face-difficulty-identifying-victims

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