Bangladesh: Death toll of the deadly building collapse now stands 405

Rescuers pulled out 17 more bodies from the debris of Rana Plaza in Savar as the rescue operation stepped into eighth straight day on Wednesday. With the fresh recovery, the death toll of the deadly building collapse now stands 405 according to an account of Dhaka District control room which is opened to provide information on the Savar tragedy. No person was rescued alive in the last two days, keeping the figure of survivors unchanged at 2,437. Rescuers gave up hope of finding any more alive seven days after the tragedy. So far, 149 people remain missing, said Maj Gen Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy of the 9th Infantry Division quoting Dhaka District control room sources. The control room made a list of missing people following the claims of the relatives whose near and dear ones still remain out of trace following the building collapse. People believe that unnumbered decomposed bodies remain stuck in concrete slabs of the sandwiched building. The number of death toll might be rise when the rescuers would manage to go into the tightly packed floors of the building, locals said. On April 24, the nine-storey Savar building housing five garment factories, a branch of Brac Bank and a shopping mall collapsed, trapping several thousand people, mostly garment workers, inside it. The frantic search and rescue operation however is going on as the rescuers have been using heavy equipment to remove the slabs of concrete from the ruins. They are also using trained dogs to trace the dead. “It could take another 12 to 15 days to remove the debris if a concerted effort is made,” Lt Col Moin Uddin of Third Engineering Battalion (Savar Cantonment) told The Daily Star on Tuesday. However, it might not be possible as the rescuers become careful whenever a body is found, he mentioned.