Rescuers continue to find victims in Rana Plaza complex after worst industrial accident since 1984 Bhopal disaster
The death toll from the catastrophic collapse of a Bangladesh factory building, the world's worst industrial accident since the Bhopal disaster in India in 1984, has climbed above 1,000. More bodies might still be trapped inside as rescuers struggle to end the salvage operation.
More than two weeks after the accident, bodies were still being pulled from the rubble of the Rana Plaza complex, and on Friday a spokesman at the army control room co-ordinating the operation said the number of people confirmed to have been killed had reached 1,038.
About 2,500 people were rescued from the building, in the industrial suburb of Savar, around 20 miles north-west of Dhaka, including many injured, but there is no official estimate of the numbers still missing.
The disaster, believed to have been triggered when generators were started up during a blackout, has put the spotlight on western retailers who use the south Asian nation as a source of cheap goods.
Nine people have been arrested in connection with the disaster, including the building's owner and bosses of the factories it housed.
Hundreds of relatives were still gathered at the site, some holding up photographs of family members. Rescue workers have found it increasingly difficult to identify decomposing bodies and are using ID cards found on them or even their mobile phones to do so.
"A total of 156 unidentified victims have been buried," said the Dhaka district administrator, Mohammad Yousuf Harun, adding that DNA samples taken from bodies had been preserved so tests could be done if relatives come forward later.
The government has blamed the owners and builders of the eight-storey complex for using shoddy construction materials, including substandard rods, bricks and cement, and not obtaining the necessary clearances.
There have been a series of deadly accidents in Bangladesh's garment industry, which accounts for 80% of the country's exports, including a fire in November that killed 112 people.