Frantic search for survivors after Dhaka building collapse

BBC Report  - A frantic search for survivors is continuing at a building outside the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, which collapsed, killing at least 160 people.

Rescue workers are working with volunteers, using heavy machinery and their bare hands to free survivors.

Tens of thousands of weeping family members are gathered at the site.

Police said the factory owners had ignored warnings not to allow their workers into the building after cracks were noticed on Tuesday.

The owners are now said to have gone into hiding.

The disaster has prompted questions over Bangladesh's chronically poor safety standards.

Bangladesh has one of the largest garment industries in the world, providing cheap clothing for major Western retailers which benefit from its widespread low-cost labour.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has announced a national day of mourning on Thursday in memory of the victims.

Officials said the death toll had risen to 160 by late on Thursday morning, from an overnight figure of about 100 - and they warn it may rise still further.

'Like a pancake'

Some 2,000 people were in the Rana Plaza building in Savar, some 30km (20 miles) outside Dhaka, when it collapsed suddenly on Wednesday morning.

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At the scene

Anbarasan EthirajanBBC News, Savar

Grieving relatives have been anxiously waiting outside the collapsed building in Savar. Rescue teams have been working frantically using concrete cutters and cranes digging through the rubble to pull people out.

It is still not clear how many people are trapped inside, although local media say there are hundreds. A doctor at the local hospital told the BBC that their services had been stretched.

The reason for the collapse is not yet known. The latest incident has once again raised questions about safety standards in the country's thriving garments industry. However, factory owners say safety standards have improved significantly in recent years.

Firefighters and soldiers joined volunteers in the effort to locate survivors in the mangled wreckage of concrete and steel.

On Thursday, Army Brig Gen Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder said many people were still trapped in the building.

A clearer picture of the rescue operation would be available by afternoon, he said.

Trapped workers can be heard inside the rubble, screaming for help.

Lengths of textile that were earlier being cut into garments - many destined for Western consumers - were now being used as makeshift slides to evacuate survivors and corpses.

Mosammat Khursida wailed as she looked for her husband, AP reported.

"He came to work in the morning. I can't find him," she said. "I don't know where he is. He does not pick up his phone."

Lines of relatives filed by numbered bodies of victims, looking for their family members.

Local hospitals were overwhelmed with more than 1,000 people injured.

Survivors said the building had collapsed suddenly, without warning.

"It became completely dark on this side," a witness said. "There was a lot of dust from the collapsing debris, so we ran downstairs. When we came out we saw the whole building collapsed."

Only the ground floor of the building remained intact, officials said.

"The whole building collapsed like a pancake within minutes. Most workers did not have any chance to escape," national fire department chief Ahmed Ali told AFP news agency.

Bangladeshi factory worker: "In one minute everything collapsed"

Speaking at the scene, Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir said the building had violated construction codes and "the culprits would be punished".

There are reports that the building owner had illegally added three extra stories to the building.

In November, a fire at a garment factory in the Dhaka suburb of Tazreen drew international attention to working conditions in Bangladesh's textile industry.

Primark, a clothes retailer with a large presence in Britain, confirmed that one of its suppliers was on the second floor of the Rana Plaza.

It said it was "shocked and deeply saddened by the appalling incident" and that it would work with other retailers to review standards.

Discount giant Wal-Mart - which was found to be sourcing products from the Tazreen factory - said it was still trying to establish whether its goods were being produced at the Rana Plaza.

"We remain committed and are actively engaged in promoting stronger safety measures, and that work continues,'' said Wal-Mart spokesman Kevin Gardner.

Hospitals are overwhelmed with the injured

A company called New Wave, with two factories in the building, supplies firms from around Europe, the US and Canada.

Meanwhile, Spanish retailer Mango said it had not been using any of the suppliers in the building but had been in talks with one of them to produce a batch of test products.

'Catch-22'

Edward Hertzman, a textiles broker based in New York, told Reuters news agency that pressure from US retailers to keep costs down was in part responsible for unsafe conditions.

"Bangladesh is the longest lead-time country and a difficult country to work in, so the only way it becomes competitive is by offering the lowest [cost]. That's the catch-22," he said.

"If the factories want to raise prices to make up for rising wages and costs, the buyers say, 'Oh why do we want to go to Bangladesh if I could go to China, Pakistan, Cambodia etc for a similar price?"

He said if Western companies really wanted safety standards to improve, they would have to accept that they need to start paying higher prices.

The last major building collapse in Bangladesh was in 2010, when a four-storey building in Dhaka caved in, killing at least 25 people and injuring several others.

In 2005, there was a building collapse near the site of Wednesday's incident, killing 64 people.