An
eight-storey block housing garment factories and a shopping center
collapsed on the outskirts of the Bangladeshi capital on Wednesday,
killing nearly 100 people and injuring hundreds more, officials said.
Fire
fighters and army personnel worked frantically through the day at the
Rana Plaza building in Savar, 30 km (19 miles) outside Dhaka, to rescue
people trapped in the rubble. Television showed young women workers,
some apparently semi-conscious, being pulled from the debris.
One fireman told Reuters that about 2,000 people were in the building when the upper floors jolted down on top of each other.
Bangladesh's
booming garment industry has been plagued by fires and other accidents
for years, despite a drive to improve safety standards. In November last
year, 112 workers were killed in a blaze at the Tazreen factory in a
nearby industrial suburb.
"It looks
like an earthquake has struck here," said one resident as he looked on
at the chaotic scene of smashed concrete and ambulances making their way
through the crowds of workers and wailing relatives.
"I was at
work on the third floor, and then suddenly I heard a deafening sound,
but couldn't understand what was happening. I ran and was hit by
something on my head," said Zohra Begum a worker at one of the
factories.
An
official at a control room set up to provide information about the
missing and injured said that 96 people were confirmed dead and more
than 700 were injured.
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