Bangladesh Factory Collapses - Hundreds Missing

A factory collapsed in Bangladesh. The factory was full of people working the nightshift. Hundreds of people are trapped under the debris. Many are already dead. They are now looking for survivors and the time is running out...

Bangladesh Factory Collapses, Hundreds Feared Trapped



Police and firefighters said the building collapsed at about 1 a.m. (3 p.m. EDT) during Monday's night shift at Shahriar Fabrics at Palashbari, 30 km (18 miles) from Dhaka.

"In a few minutes the entire structure crumbled like a house of cards," a witness told a private television channel.

Rescuers pulled 22 bodies from a nine-storey garment factory that collapsed near Bangladesh's capital on Monday but hundreds of people were feared trapped in the rubble.

"We suspect up to 500 people are under the debris. It was a packed night shift running ... and dozens may have died already," a survivor told reporters on the scene.

Some of those trapped on the upper two floors might still be alive but there was no chance of survival for those under the rubble of the lower floors, rescuers said.



Picture: Rescue workers search for survivors trapped under a collapsed nine-story building near Dhaka April 11,2005. Rescuers dug out at least five bodies and feared possibly hundreds more were trapped under rubble after the building collapsed like a house of cards near the Bangladesh capital, witnesses said on Monday. (Rafiqur Rahman/Reuters)

22 have been confirmed dead already. This number will most probably end up way much higher...

That's so tragic. What triggered the collapse? With 9 floors pancaking, survival rate is probably not too good. Poor people