Rescuers at Savar’s Rana Plaza pulled out another 131 bodies yesterday, the highest number since the use of heavy machinery began, four days after the collapse.
The total death toll reached 960 with the new finds made 16 days into the rescue work at Rana Plaza, which housed five garment factories, and collapsed on April 24.
The disaster management control cell, which was coordinating the operation, called off its decision to finish work in a day or two.
Commander of the 14th Independent Engineering Brigade of Dhaka Cantonment, Brig Gen Azmal Kabir, said yesterday, “On Wednesday, we assumed that no more dead bodies would be found as the frequency of finding bodies was decreasing.
“But in the early hours, we unexpectedly found at least 70 bodies.”
Rescuers said that most of the bodies were recovered from the staircase of the eight-storey commercial building, which they dug into yesterday. The find has increased their fears of finding many more bodies in the rubble as a large number of people remain missing since the country’s deadliest industrial disaster.
Azmal said: “We assume that a number of workers came down by the staircase to the second floor on the day of the disaster only to find the gate of the rear entrance locked. That portion of the staircase went under the mud burying them alive.”
The army official said the rescuers could not reach the staircase in the manual phase of the operation and it was finally exposed yesterday.
When asked about how many dead bodies might be still buried in the rubble, Azmal said he could not give any numbers. “Employers cannot confirm exact number of workers, nor can we. But we will be able to give an approximate number after the rescuers reach the basement.”
He said that the army would abandon the operations once it had visual confirmation that no bodies remained after reaching the basement. “We are now digging a hole to the basement. We are assuming that few more bodies will be found there.”
However, another army official, seeking anonymity, said they would have an estimate last tonight about how many days would be needed to finish the operation.
Meanwhile, around 150 traders, who had shops in the collapsed building, organised a human chain yesterday near the site and demanded compensation for their losses. They claimed to have lost all their capital in the disaster and were inundated in debt. They sought the prime minister’s intervention.
Rana Plaza, which housed five garment factories, a market and a bank branch, collapsed after factory owners forced several thousand workers to work even though the building was marked unsafe the day before, after cracks developed on some pillars and floors.
