Siddique Islam (National News Service) Dhaka, Wednesday, April 13: rescuers dug out four more bodies from the rubble of a garment factory that collapsed at Saver Monday last, taking the confirmed death toll to 30 Wednesday, with 100 or more people feared trapped inside.
Thousands of people -- relatives and neighbours -- kept at bay by security personnel, still wait. As bodies are pulled out and carried to a wooden platform in an adjacent field, the relatives rush for identification. Several hundred fire fighters, army personnel, RAB members and policemen are working round the clock to clear the rubble.
Rescuers had pulled out more than 100 people alive from the mountainous pile of concrete slabs and bricks, by cutting holes from the top and using sniffer dogs. Two people emerged alive late on Tuesday.
The rescuers pumped oxygen and dropped water bottles through peepholes for presumed survivors, although chances of finding more people alive were fading fast, rescue officials said.
On Wednesday, many rescuers put on masks as rotting smells started coming from under the debris.
"We are keeping hope against hope. It is possible some people may still be waiting to be rescued but chances are dimming," a rescue official observed.
The factory produces clothes for export, including to the United States. The textile industry is one of Bangladesh's most important, accounting for more than $5 billion in exports annually -- two-thirds of the country's total exports.
Meanwhile, a number of foreign buyers, mainly in Europe and US asked garments industry owners to inquire of the reason of building-crumbled and also to check if everything is okay with their deals, some factory owners told The Daily Star, a local leading daily Tuesday. (End/si)
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"Human beings have still not been able to form a human society, and have still not learned to move with the spirit of a pilgrim. Although many small groups, motivated by self-interest, work together in particular situations, not even a small fraction of their work is done with a broader social motive. By strict definition, shall we have to declare that each small family unit is a society in itself? If going ahead in mutual adjustment only out of narrow self-interest or momentary self-seeking is called society, then in such a society, no provision can be made for the disabled, the diseased or the helpless, because in most cases nobody can benefit from them in any way... in that case there always remains the possibility of some people getting isolated from the collective. All human beings must attach themselves to others by the common bond of love and march forward hand in hand; then only will I proclaim it a society." |