Survivor found at Bangladesh collapse site

Survivor found at Bangladesh collapse site
8:17pm May 10, 2013

Bangladeshi rescuers have found a woman survivor in the rubble of a garment factory complex which collapsed and killed more than 1000 people on April 24, says the country's fire service chief.

"She has been located in a gap between a beam and a column. Her name is Reshmi. She may have reserves of water or have drunk some of the water that we've pumped into the building," Ahmed Ali said.

Officials said 1038 bodies had been recovered at the site, as of Friday morning and many more were expected.

The building had housed five garment factories employing thousands of workers.

The disaster has raised alarm about the often deadly working conditions in Bangladesh's $A20 billion garment industry, which provides clothing for major retailers around the globe.

"We are trying to cut through the basement floor. This is very hard. More bodies are coming out," said Brigadier General Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder, an army official overseeing the recovery work.

"We will need more time to complete as we are trying to recover more bodies."

He said the bodies being recovered are badly decomposed and identification is difficult.

"We are working carefully," he said.

"If we get any ID card or mobile phone with them, we can still identify them. Our sincere effort is to at least hand over the bodies to the families.

Brigadier General Azmal Kabir, a top official of the military's engineering section, said more than half of the estimated 7000 tonnes of debris have been removed from the site.

The country's powerful garment industry was struck by more tragedy late Wednesday night, when a fire in a sweater factory that had closed for the day killed eight people, including a senior police officer, a Bangladeshi politician and a top clothing industry official.

Unlike the collapse at the Rana Plaza building on April 24, which was blamed on shoddy construction and disregard for safety regulations, the Tung Hai Sweater factory appeared to have conformed to building codes.

A top fire official said the deaths there were caused by panic and bad luck.

The fire engulfed the lower floors of the 11-storey factory, which had closed for the day. The smouldering acrylic products produced immense amounts of smoke and poison gas and the victims suffocated as they ran down the stairs.

The dead included the factory's managing director, Mahbubur Rahman, who was also on the board of directors of the powerful Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

Officials say the owner of Rana Plaza illegally added three floors and allowed the garment factories to install heavy machines and generators, even though the structure was not designed to support such equipment.

The owner and eight other people, including the owners of the garment factories, have been detained.

The chairman of Enam Medical College and Hospital, which took in many survivors after the collapse, told Channel 24 station that of the more than 1700 people treated there, 75 seriously injured remained.