SAVAR, Bangladesh (AP) – The number of people killed in the collapse of a Bangladeshi garment factory climbed to 69 Sunday as rescuers recovered nine more bodies, a rescue official said, adding there is scant hope of finding anyone else alive.
A boiler explosion on Monday brought the nine-story building down on nearly 300 workers at the factory near Savar, an industrial town 20 miles northwest of the capital, Dhaka.
About 96 more workers were still missing and feared dead.
“There is little scope of finding anyone alive now, but we never give up hope,” said Brig. Gen. Nizam Ahmed, an army officer who was supervising the rescue work.
Most of the corpses were badly mangled and decomposing, and relatives struggled to identify them by clothing or other personal effects.
The factory was built on a swamp three years ago, and building investigators suspect poor construction may have led to the collapse.
Bangladesh has about 2,500 garment factories employing about 1.8 million workers. The South Asian nation exports more than $5 billion in textiles each year.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.