Rescuers pull out Reshma from the rubble of Rana Plaza after 17 days of the building complex collapse in Savar on Friday afternoon.
Miraculous as it may sound, a woman was rescued alive, almost unhurt, from inside the rubble of Rana Plaza Friday afternoon, the 17th day into the country’s worst building collapse.
Named Reshma, the woman, who clung to life in the basement of the now flattened nine-storey building, was pulled out at 4:25pm as the death toll from the collapse reached 1,043.
With almost no sign of injuries in her body, the woman was whisked off to Combined Military Hospital in Savar.
“She is in good health,” Maj Moazzem Hossain, a member of the army, told a curious army of journalists minutes after the rescue as the welcome news swept through the country.
Rescuers gave her water and biscuit, stopping use of any heavy machines to make sure that the survivor is not hurt anyway.
An ambulance has been kept waiting near the site to whisk her to hospital on her rescue.
Almost 408 hours into the collapse, a rescuer heard Reshma groaning around 3:15pm.
According to rescuers, they were preparing to break a large slab when the miracle happened.
“As we made an announcement before starting to break the slab asking whether there was anyone alive in there, we heard someone groan,” said a rescuer whose name could not be learnt immediately.
As they jubilant rescuers inquired about her condition, she said she was not much hurt, said the rescuers.
“Reshma,” she replied in a feeble voice, as they asked her name.
ALL NOT LUCKY
Another woman Shaheena was found surviving inside the debris on April 28, more than 100 hours after the building collapse.
But rescuers could not pull her out of the rubble alive even after trying their best.
Ezazuddin Kaikobad, 35, who along with five other rescuers, including two army personnel, entered a tunnel inside the rubble of Rana Plaza on April 28 to pull out garment worker Shaheena, who got trapped behind a beam on the third floor.
When Ezaz was cutting a rod with power saw, a fire broke out from the sparks that originated from the rod-cutting, prompting the rescue team to retreat immediately.
He was admitted to the burn unit of CMH in Dhaka with around 55 percent burn injuries.
He died in a Singapore hospital on May 5.
Source: The Daily Star