Death toll in Bangladesh building collapse rises over 200

With over 200 people killed in one of the worst building collapses in Bangladesh, thousands of distraught people today watched rescuers search for their loved ones trapped under the rubble of the eight-story complex that had come crashing down within seconds.

"So far 204 bodies were retrieved and 2,013 people were rescued alive from under the debris," Major General Abul Hassan Sarwardy, overseeing the rescue campaign, told reporters on the outskirts of Dhaka, where the tragedy took place yesterday morning.

Sarwardy, who is the general officer commanding of Army's Savar-based 9th division, said that the highly trained military and fire brigade rescuers would continue to search for those who were still trapped under tonnes of debris.

"They are cautiously penetrating inside the wreck using concrete and rod cutters and retrieving the bodies manually.. ...use of heavy equipment could collapse the building further causing more casualties," he said.

The Rana Plaza, an eight-storey commercial building, housed three garment units supplying Western clothes retailers, a bank branch and around three hundred shops.
Locals said around 3,500 workers, mostly women, of the garment factories were working when the tragedy struck.

Meanwhile, national flag flew at half-mast as Bangladesh declared a day of mourning today.

Director of the Industrial Police Mostafizur Rahman has blamed the garment factory owners for the collapse, as they were operating their units ignoring the cracks spotted in the building on Tuesday.

"The Industrial Police had asked the owners of the factories to suspend operations after cracks were noticed in Rana Plaza. We had asked them to operate the factories only after a structural inspection by engineers," Rahman said.

Bangladesh's booming garment industry has been plagued by fires and other accidents for years. The country witnessed the last major building collapse in 2005 when over 70 people were killed after a multi-storey garment factory collapsed in the same area.

The owners of the Rana Plaza in Savar and the garment factories went into hiding fearing arrest, as the regulatory authorities and police filed separate cases accusing them of illegally constructing the structure and exposing the workers to the fatal accident.

Industrial police said two of their detectives were missing and feared dead as they went inside the structure to investigate into its risk exposure at the time of collapse.

Rescuers feared that about 1500 more people were trapped under the debris.

The Army Commander, overseeing the rescue operation, said they were trying everything possible to rescue all the people trapped by tomorrow.

Navy and Air Force rescuers also joined the operations. Efforts were underway to provide oxygen under the debris so that the trapped people could breathe.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a statement called for patience, saying rescue operations in a hurry could invite further accidents.

Scores of people crowded the scene of the tragedy with photographs of their missing family members. Witnesses said water bottles and dry food were being dropped through the gaps in debris.

Distraught relatives watched the bodies of the victims being kept in an open ground of a local high school to be handed over to the bereaved families.

Officials said over 100 bodies had already been received by the families of the victims.

Some workers complained that the building had developed cracks Tuesday evening, but were not able to evacuate as they were forced back by their managers, media reports said.

The entire staff of the BRAC Bank, housed inside the complex, escaped the tragedy as the authorities had ordered their evacuation just after the cracks were reported.

"The fact is we don't know yet how many people were killed actually...but I can tell you the building was not built in compliance with the (safety) rules and regulations," Home Minister Mahiuddin Khan Alamgir had said yesterday.

Army said 3,000 of their officers and soldiers reached the scene in minutes after the collapse.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordered mobilisation of all efforts to rescue the trapped people.