Rescuers give up hope for survivors in Bangladesh building collapse
1 May 2013 1:23 AM GMT
Rescuers today gave up hope of finding more survivors from the eight-storey building that collapsed six days ago from where 388 bodies were retrieved so far while Bangladesh High Court ordered seizure of the owner’s property.
‘It is very unlikely that someone is still alive under the rubble after nearly 148 hours of the building collapse ... but Allah knows better,’ commander of the salvage operations Major General Chowdhury Hassan Sarwardy told reporters at the collapse site in Dhaka’s suburb. He said rescuers recovered three more bodies this morning and ‘until the last body, dead or alive, is retrieved our (salvage) efforts will continue ceaselessly’. He added that over 2,800 people were rescued alive from under tonnes of debris at the collapse site.
His comments came as the second phase of the salvage operation was underway.
Heavy cranes continued to be used for the second day after the first phase in which rescuers retrieved survivors and bodies manually while keeping the ruins intact.
Fire brigade officials said they estimated that as high as 3,200 people were inside the building while over 2,800 survivors and bodies were retrieved since the collapse of the building which housed five garment factories. Under the second phase, rescuers brought sensors and small cameras to detect bodies inside the huge rubble and two army sniffer dogs were kept ready to be engaged in tracking down bodies.
‘It is very unlikely that someone is still alive under the rubble after nearly 148 hours of the building collapse ... but Allah knows better,’ commander of the salvage operations Major General Chowdhury Hassan Sarwardy told reporters at the collapse site in Dhaka’s suburb. He said rescuers recovered three more bodies this morning and ‘until the last body, dead or alive, is retrieved our (salvage) efforts will continue ceaselessly’. He added that over 2,800 people were rescued alive from under tonnes of debris at the collapse site.
His comments came as the second phase of the salvage operation was underway.
Heavy cranes continued to be used for the second day after the first phase in which rescuers retrieved survivors and bodies manually while keeping the ruins intact.
Fire brigade officials said they estimated that as high as 3,200 people were inside the building while over 2,800 survivors and bodies were retrieved since the collapse of the building which housed five garment factories. Under the second phase, rescuers brought sensors and small cameras to detect bodies inside the huge rubble and two army sniffer dogs were kept ready to be engaged in tracking down bodies.
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