Rescuers scour factory rubble 
for survivors

In some places, they were able to cut holes into the jumbled mess of concrete with drilling machines or their bare hands, and pass water and torches to people trapped inside.

“I gave them whistles, water, torchlights, I heard them cry. We can’t leave them behind this way,” said fire official Abul Khayer. He said rescue operations would continue through the night because many survivors were still believed to be inside the collapsed building.

Less than five months after a factory fire killed 112 people, the disaster yesterday again underscored the unsafe conditions in Bangladesh’s massive garment industry.

Workers said they had hesitated to go to work because the building had developed such large cracks the previous day that it had been reported on local news channels.

Abdur Rahim, who worked on the fifth floor, said a factory manager assured them there was no problem, so they went inside.

“We started working. After about an hour or so the building collapsed suddenly,” he said. He next remembered regaining consciousness outside the building.

Home minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir told reporters during a visit to the site that the building had violated construction codes and “the culprits would be punished.”

Among the textile businesses in the building were Phantom Apparels Ltd, New Wave Style Ltd, New Wave Bottoms Ltd and New Wave Brothers Ltd.

Workers said they did not know what specific clothing brands were being produced in the building because labels are attached after the products are finished.

Sumi, a 25-year-old worker who goes by one name, said she was sewing jeans on the fifth floor with at least 400 others when the building fell. “It collapsed all of a sudden,” she said. “No shaking, no indication. It just collapsed on us.”

She said she managed to reach a hole in the building through which rescuers pulled her out.

Reports suggested the death toll was likely to rise.

“We sent two people inside the building and we could rescue at least 20 people alive. They also told us that at least 100 to 150 people are injured and about 50 dead people are still trapped inside this floor,” said Mohammad Humayun, a supervisor at one of the garment factories.

Tens of thousands of people gathered at the site, some of them weeping survivors, some searching for family members. Firefighters and soldiers using drilling machines and cranes worked with local volunteers in the search for survivors.

An enormous section of the concrete structure appeared to have splintered like twigs. Colourful sheets of fabric were tied to upper floors of the wreckage so those inside could climb or slide down and escape.

The building, in the Dhaka suburb of Savar, housed a bank and various shops in addition to the garment factories.

An arm jutted out of one section of the rubble. The lifeless body of a woman covered in dust could be seen in another.

Mr Rahim said his mother and father, who worked with him in the factory, were trapped inside.

“I have no idea what is going on,” he said.

Mosammat Khurshida wailed as she looked for her husband. “He came to work in the morning. I can’t find him,” she said.