“Around 127 dead bodies have been recovered and 75 identified so far,” Assistant Police Super of Savar Moshi Uddawla Reja told UNB at night.
Rescue workers, led by Army, were continuing their operation to rescue those remained trapped in the building that collapsed at about 9am.
The building housed five garment units with over 3,000 workers, BGMEA President M Atiqul Islam told a press briefing in the evening. A large number of workers are believed to have been there in the building when it crashed down.
GOC (Nine division) Maj Gen Hossain Shaheed Suhrawardy said the rescue operation will continue until the last person is rescued. “This is what the directive of the Prime Minister,” he told reporters at the spot.
Of the recovered bodies, many were taken to Enam Medical College Hospital while the rest to different local hospitals and clinics. “Nearly 100 bodies were recovered from the debris and sent those to various hospitals and clinics till evening,” Wahiduzzaman, OC DB (Dhaka district) told UNB.
An official at the local administration said 44 of the recovered bodies have so far been handed over to their relatives.
Besides, Wahiduzzaman said, over 800 people, injured in the horrific building crash, were taken to different local hospitals and clinics in critical conditions after rescuing them from the rubbles of the building owned by local Jubo League leader Sohel Rana.
Assistant director (Coordination) of Department of Health, Ruhul Forkan, who is monitoring the reuse operation, told reporters that 90 bodies have so far been recovered from the debris of the collapsed building as of 6pm.
However, firefighters and local sources claimed that the death toll would be much higher than 100. They also feared that many workers might have got trapped under the debris.
Meanwhile, the government announced one day mourning for Thursday when the national flag will fly at half-mast atop all government and semi-government offices.
Witnesses said the building, ‘Rana Plaza’ which developed cracks on Tuesday morning, collapsed all of a sudden after a big bang around 9.00am.
Many survivors alleged that the owners of their garment factories compelled them to go back to work on Wednesday morning against their will.
Instructed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, four rescued teams of Bangladesh Army along with a medical team rushed to the spot and were carrying out the rescue operation with the help of local administration.
Local fire brigade personnel and police were also in the rescue teams and carrying out their operations till filing of the report around 9.30pm.
State Minister for LGRD Jahangir Kabir Nanak who was at the spot told the journalists that over 800 people, including 500 from one floor, were rescued from the debris.
Meanwhile, President Abdul Hamid, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia expressed profound shock at the loss of lives in the building crash.
Following the incident, the premier urged the opposition leader to withdraw their ongoing hartal for the smooth rescue operation in the collapsed building and sending the injured to hospitals.
The BNP-led 18-party alliance first relaxed the shutdown in Savar and finally called it off around 3:30pm, which was supposed to end at 6pm Wednesday.
Visiting the spot, BGMEA president M Atiqul Islam held the building owner, local Jubo League leader Sohel Ranan, responsible for the incident and demanded action against him.
BGMEA second vice president SM Mannan Kochi told reporters that they directed the garment factory owners on Tuesday night to keep their factories at building closed fearing a major accident. “Despite that the factories were kept open,” he alleged.
Relatives of the victims and the garment workers who thronged the spot vented their anger for what they said the unusual delay in the rescue operation.
At one stage, they chased policemen on the backside of the collapsed building at about 1:45pm. Having chased, the law enforcers took shelter at a nearby house.
Later, police brought the situation under control firing blank shots and teargas shells.
Meanwhile, Home Minister Dr Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir said the government would take stern legal actions against those responsible for the incident.“The building built violating rules. There’s no approval from the relevant authorities. We’ll investigate the matter and take actions against those responsible,” he told journalists after visiting the spot at Savar.
Meanwhile, a survivor of the tragic incident, Nur Islam, 35, who was working as a cutting staff at New Web Button Ltd on the 3rd floor of the building told the correspondent that the building started crashing with a big bang around 8.45 am.
After the incident, Nur Islam said he had somehow managed to come out through the staircase breaking grills and glasses on the second floor before it collapsed. Apart from the New Web Button Ltd, there was another RMG factory in the building, Eather Text Ltd.
He also informed that the local mayor and the UNO visited the building on Tuesday morning following the news that it had developed some cracks.
Source: UNB Connect
