“I kept shouting till my throat hurt. I screamed each time I heard a sound but no one came to my rescue,” said Reshma, describing her 408-hour ordeal under the rubble of the eight-storey building that collapsed on April 24.
She survived for 15 days on dry foods. Two days ago, she says she lost hope as the water bottle which had sustained her, ran out.
She said she had been on the first floor and took shelter in the basement after the building came crashing down.
When she saw a glimmer of light coming through a gap she put a stick into it and began to move it to draw the attention of rescue workers.
“I’m alive, please rescue me,” she cried out repeatedly.
“It was difficult to breath down there. Still I am facing difficulties in breathing,” she said.
Soon after the 19-year-old was retrieved yesterday at 4.26pm, she was sent to the Combined Military Hospital.
The worst-ever industrial building collapse disaster has left more than 1,000 people dead, while a further 2,500 had to be rescued.
Reshma, who worked in New Wave Bottoms, is a resident of Ghoraghat, Dinajpur.
Rescuers gave up hope of finding anyone alive and began to use heavy machinery to clear up the broken concrete on April 28.
On April 29, they found Sahina alive, but were unable to bring her to safety as a fire broke out while she was being pulled up.
The recovery of Reshma brings to mind Park Seung Hyun, a 19-year-old, who was also found alive 17 days after being trapped under the rubble of Sampoong Department Store, that had collapsed in Seoul, South Korea, in 1995.
That was the largest disaster in South Korean history, with 502 people killed and 937 injured.