The death toll from the factory building collapse in Bangladesh could reach as much as 1,400, it emerged today.As
many as 900 workers are still missing six days after the reinforced
concrete of Rana Plaza in Savar, near Dhaka, crumbled around them.
Around 3,000 workers - mainly young women who made cheap clothes for the likes of Primark and Matalan
- had gone to work in the eight-storey building last Wednesday morning,
despite huge cracks appearing in the walls the day before.
Clearing the rubble: Rescue workers use heavy
machinery to clear the wreckage of the eight-storey Rana Plaza, where
the death toll is expected to leap as high as 1,400 as they discover
bodies trapped inside
Grim search: Around 3,000 workers - mainly young
women - had gone to work in the eight-storey building last Wednesday
morning, despite huge cracks appearing in the walls the day before
The official death toll is at
least 386, but that number is expected to be upgraded sharply as
authorities take into account those who they believe remain trapped,
dead beneath the rubble.
Police
have been given 15 days to quiz the building's owner, Mohammed Sohel
Rana, a leader of the ruling Awami League's youth front, who was
arrested on Sunday as he tried to flee to India.
Officers
from Bangladesh's elite Rapid Action Battalion seized Rana in the
Bangladesh border town of Benapole. He is being held on charges of
negligence, illegal construction and forcing workers to join work.
His father, Abdul Khaleque, was also arrested on suspicion of aiding Rana to force people to work in a dangerous building.
Emergency
workers hauling large concrete slabs from the scene of the catastrophe -
Bangladesh's worst ever industrial accident - said today they expect to
find many dead bodies when they reach the ground floor.
Hundreds
of bystanders remain at the site, waiting for news of missing
relatives, holding their pictures and identity cards as they watch
cranes lifting sections of ceilings and floors from the rubble.
Emergency workers in hard hats used drilling and cutting machines to break up the slabs into manageable pieces.
Property tycoon Sohel Rana was arrested by
Bangladesh police while apparently trying to flee the country over the
collapse of the Primark garment factory
Mahmud
Ali of the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society said many more bodies are
believed trapped under the rubble of the building, judging by stench of
decomposing flesh.
Ratna
Akhtar, looking for her husband at a nearby school ground turned
makeshift morgue, cried: 'Give me my husband back. At least I want to
see his dead body if not alive.'
The
eight storeys of the illegally constructed Rana Plaza collapsed in a
heap last Wednesday, trapping thousands of workers from five garment
factories inside.
The
collapse was the deadliest disaster to hit Bangladesh's garment
industry, which is worth £13billion a year and supplies High Street
retailers throughout the West.
Bosses
at high street giant Primark have said they will pay compensation to
the families of their workers who were killed and injured in the
accident.
The budget
clothing chain occupied a floor of the eight-storey building, and some
of the workers injured and killed in the incident worked for a company
that supplied the brand.
Still working through the night: Emergency
workers hauling large concrete slabs from the scene of the catastrophe
said today they expect to find many dead bodies when they reach the
ground floor
Catastrophe: The eight storeys of the illegally
constructed Rana Plaza collapsed in a heap last Wednesday, trapping
thousands of workers from five garment factories inside
Roughly 2,900 workers have been
accounted for so far - about 2,500 survivors and the 386 dead. It is not
clear how many people worked in other offices in the building which
also housed a bank and many shops.
Brigadier
General Ali Ahmed Khan, chief of the fire brigade at the scene, said
there was now little hope of finding anyone else alive.
'Our men went inside and saw some dead bodies in the ground floor. But no one was seen alive,' he said.
In
another sign no more survivors are expected, the waiting ambulances
that had rushed the rescued to hospitals since the start of the disaster
are now gone.
Police say as many as 900 people are still
missing in the aftermath of the collapse. This woman is one of nine
survivors who were pulled from the rubble yesterday
Hope: A survivor is carried into an ambulance
while surrounded by onlookers, after being rescued from the garment
factory building that collapsed Wednesday in Savar, near Dhaka,
Bangladesh
Rana,
the building's owner, was yesterday brought to the Dhaka Metropolitan
Magistrates' Court in a bullet-proof vest, and led away to an unknown
detention place after the magistrate granted a police request to hold
him longer before filing formal charges.
The crimes he is accused of carry a maximum punishment of seven years. More charges could be added later.
Rana
had permission to build a five-storey building but added three more
floors illegally. Huge cracks had appeared in the building on April 23
but Rana told tenants it was safe to go in.
PRIMARK PROMISES COMPENSATION
Bosses
at high street giant Primark have said they will pay compensation to
the families of their workers involved in the Bangladesh building
collapse that took the lives of 400 people.
The
budget clothing chain occupied a floor of the eight-storey building,
and some of the workers injured and killed in the incident worked for a
company that supplied the brand.
In
a statement released on its website, a Primark spokesman said:
'Primark's team in Bangladesh has been working to put in place immediate
and long-term help for victims of this disaster.
'We have
partnered with a local NGO to address the immediate needs of victims,
including the provision of emergency food aid to families. This
initiative began in Bangladesh immediately (when) the extent of the
disaster became clear.
'Primark
will also pay compensation to the victims of this disaster who worked
for its supplier. This will include the provision of long-term aid for
children who have lost parents, financial aid for those injured and
payments to the families of the deceased.'
Primark
said it would be 'reviewing our commitments constantly' to ensure they
meet the needs of the victims, and also urged other retailers who used
suppliers based in the building to offer assistance.
Ruth
Tanner, campaigns and policy director at the anti-poverty charity War
on Want, said: 'If UK high street chains like Primark had put in place
proper measures to ensure the workers who make their clothes are safe,
these deaths could have been avoided.
'While
Primark has taken some responsibility, the retailer and the other
companies involved must pay full compensation, including loss of
earnings, sign the Bangladesh Fire and Safety Agreement and ensure such a
disaster never happens again.'
A bank and some first-floor shops
closed after police ordered an evacuation. But managers of the garment
factories on the upper floors told workers to continue their shifts.
Police have also arrested four owners of three factories.
The
death toll in last Wednesday's collapse has already surpassed a fire
five months ago that killed 112 people and brought widespread pledges to
improve worker-safety standards. But since then, very little has
changed in Bangladesh.
'I
think it is a wakeup call for the nation, a wakeup call for the industry
and for the trade unions,' said Shirin Akter, president of Karmojibi
Nari, a Dhaka-based group that lobbies for the rights of women at work.
Hundreds
of angry workers poured into the streets in the Dhaka suburb of Ashulia
and set fire to an ambulance yesterday, the Independent TV network
reported. They also tried to set fire to a factory, it said.
The
authorities shut down all garment factories in the Ashulia and Gazipur
industrial suburbs, including one that had reportedly developed cracks
and was evacuated earlier.
Bangladesh's
garment industry was the third-largest in the world in 2011, after
China and Italy, having grown rapidly in the past decade.
Among
the garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac,
Ether Tex, New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms. Altogether, they
produced several million shirts, pants and other garments a year.
The New Wave companies, according to their website, make clothing for several major North American and European retailers.
Primark
has acknowledged it was using a factory in Rana Plaza. It said in a
statement yesterday that it is providing emergency aid and will pay
compensation to victims who worked for its supplier.
'Primark
notes the fact that its supplier shared the building with those of
other retailers. We are fully aware of our responsibility. We urge these
other retailers to come forward and offer assistance,' it said.
Canadian
company Loblaw, which also got its Joe Fresh clothing line made in Rana
Plaza, said it will ensure that victims and their families 'receive
benefits now and in the future.'
Spokesman
Julija Hunter said the company is still working out the details, but
plans to deliver support 'in the best and most meaningful way possible.'
Wal-Mart said none of its
clothing had been authorised to be made in the facility, but it is
investigating whether there was any unauthorised production.
DAILYMAIL
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