Rescuers battling to reach 40
still trapped in factory debris

Brigadier General Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder, who is overseeing rescue operations, says all 40 were found trapped in one room on the fourth floor of the building, which housed several garment factories.

He said rescue teams are working to free the remaining people.

At least 238 people have died in the worst disaster for Bangladesh’s booming and powerful garment industry.

Meanwhile officials have said that police ordered the evacuation of the building the day before the collapse when deep cracks became visible in the walls, but the factories flouted the order.

More than 2,000 people carried on working when a huge section of the eight-storey building splintered into a pile of concrete.

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 conditions faced by Bangladesh’s garment workers, who produce clothes for brands around the world.

Some of the companies in the building that fell say their customers include retail giants such as Wal-Mart, the company behind Asda, and Primark.

Hundreds of rescuers, some crawling through the maze of rubble in search of survivors and corpses, worked through the night amid the cries of the trapped and the wails of workers’ relatives gathered outside.

“Save us brother. I beg you brother. I want to live,” moaned Mohammad Altab, a garment worker pinned between two concrete slabs and next to two corpses. It’s so painful here ... I have two little children,” Altab said, his voice weak from exhaustion.

Another survivor, whose voice could be heard from deep in the rubble, wept as he called for help.

“We want to live brother, it hard to remain alive here. It would have been better to die than enduring such pain to live on. We want to live, please save us,” he cried.

After the cracks were reported on Tuesday, managers of a local bank that also had an office in the building evacuated its workers. The garment factories, though, kept working, ignoring the instructions of the local industrial police, said Mostafizur Rahman, a director of the paramilitary police force.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association had also asked the factories to suspend work starting on Wednesday morning, hours before the collapse.

“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.

Yesterday the smell of rotting bodies wafted from the wreckage. Junior minister for Home Affairs,

Officials said rescue teams were standing by with heavy equipment and would “start bulldozing the debris once we get closer to the end of the operation. But now we are careful.”

Abdul Halim, an official with the engineering department in Savar, said permission was given for a five-storey building but another three stories were added illegally.

The owner is said to be Mohammed Sohel Rana, a local leader of the ruling Awami League party’s youth front. It is believed some managers and company owners were in the building when it collapsed.