The death
toll from a building collapse in Bangladesh yesterday has risen to 160 and
could climb higher, police said this morning.
People remain trapped under the
rubble of a complex that had housed garment factories supplying retailers in
Europe and North America.
Rescue
workers have been digging through the rubble of the eight-storey Rana Plaza
building in Savar, 30km outside the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka.
More than
1,000 people were injured.
"The
death toll could go up as many are still trapped under the rubble,"
Dhaka's district police chief, Habibur Rahman, said this morning.
Bangladesh
Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) president Mohammad
Atiqul Islam said there were 3,122 workers in the factories yesterday.
He said
there had been indications from Savar officials that cracks had been found in
the building the day before.
"We
asked the garment owners to keep it closed," Mr Islam said.
Rana
Plaza's owner had told proprietors of the building's five garment factories
that the cracks were not dangerous, Mr Islam added.
"After
getting the green signal from the plaza owner all the garment factories
opened," he said.
However,
police official Mohammad Asaduzzaman said factory owners appeared to have
ignored a warning not to allow their workers into the building after a crack
was detected on Tuesday.
News
reports showed young women workers, some apparently semi-conscious, being
pulled out of the rubble by firefighters and troops.
Doctors at
Dhaka hospitals said they could not cope with the number of victims.
The
collapse follows a November fire at the Tazreen Fashion factory on the
outskirts of Dhaka that killed 112 people, and it has compounded concerns about
worker safety and low wages in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh
employs about 3.6 million people in the garment industry and is the world's
second-largest apparel exporter.
Following
the Tazreen fire, giant US retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc said it would take
steps to alleviate safety concerns, while Gap Inc announced a four-step
fire-safety programme.
"Still
we are struggling to overcome the odds after the Tazreen fire, now another
incident which is a strong blow for the sector," Mr Islam said. Read full articles here
