DHAKA: More than 125 people were killed and many more missing in a succession of tragedies in Bangladesh late Saturday and early Sunday, officials said.
Fire officials said at least 112 people perished in a fire that raced through a garment factory just outside the capital, Dhaka, on Saturday night. In the second incident, 13 people were confirmed dead and dozens were feared missing after a flyover under construction collapsed in the southeastern port city of Chittagong, police said Sunday.
By Sunday morning, hours after Dhaka's blaze broke out at the seven-story factory operated by Tazreen Fashions, firefighters had recovered 100 bodies, fire department Operations Director Maj. Mohammad Mahbub told The Associated Press.
He said another 12 people who had suffered injuries after jumping from the building to escape the fire later died at hospitals. The death toll could rise as the search for victims was continuing, he said.
Local media reported that up to 124 people were killed in the fire. The cause of the blaze was not immediately clear, and authorities have ordered an investigation.
Bangladesh has some 4,000 garment factories, many without proper safety measures. The country annually earns about $20 billion from exports of garment products, mainly to the United States and Europe.
Relatives of the factory workers were frantically looking for their loved ones. Sabina Yasmine said she saw the body of her daughter-in-law, who died in the fire, but had no trace of her son, who also worked at the factory.
“Oh, Allah, where’s my soul? Where’s my son?” wailed Yasmine, who works at another factory in the area. “I want the factory owner to be hanged. For him, many have died, many have gone.”
Mahbub said firefighters recovered 69 bodies from the second floor of the factory alone. He said most of the victims had been trapped inside the factory, located just outside of Dhaka, with no emergency exits leading outside the building.
Many workers who had taken shelter on the roof of the factory were rescued, but firefighters were unable to save those who were trapped inside, Mahbub said.
He said the fire broke out on the ground floor, which was used as a warehouse, and spread quickly to the upper floors.
“The factory had three staircases, and all of them were down through the ground floor,” Mahbub said. “So the workers could not come out when the fire engulfed the building.”
“Had there been at least one emergency exit through outside the factory, the casualties would have been much lower,” he said.
Many of the victims were burned beyond recognition. The recovered bodies were kept in rows on the premise of a nearby school.
Army soldiers and paramilitary border guards were deployed to help police keep the situation under control as thousands of onlookers and anxious relatives of the factory workers gathered at the scene, Mahbub said. He would not say how many people were still missing.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed shock at the loss of so many lives in the blaze and asked authorities to conduct thorough search-and-rescue operations.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said it would stand by the victims’ families.
Bangladesh’s garment factories make clothes for brands including Wal-Mart, JC Penney, H&M, Marks & Spencer, Carrefour and Tesco.
Separately, a flyover under construction fell onto a busy market, leaving at least 14 people dead including three construction workers in southeastern city of Chittagong, an official said Sunday.
Local fire official Abdul Mannan said the concrete structure collapsed on Saturday night, and authorities recovered the bodies by Sunday morning from under the debris in the second-largest city after Dhaka.
Flyover collapse
In the Chittagong flyover collapse, police said military rescue teams had been called in to help in search and rescue operations amid reports that there were victims trapped under the rubble.
“So far 13 dead bodies have been recovered,” sub-inspector Mohammad Alauddin told Agence France Presse.
Police constable Shakakhawat Hossain said dozens could be trapped under the debris, citing statements from witnesses who said more than 50 construction workers and vegetable hawkers had gathered near a pond under the bridge at the end of work when three concrete girders of the under-construction flyover crashed on Saturday evening.
“Instantly the whole area was covered by smoke and dust,” Syed Mainuddin, a witness, told reporters.
Police and local people rescued at least 15 people from the spot and rushed them to hospital, police said.
Chittagong fire brigade chief Abdul Mannan dsif each of the girders are about 100 feet (30 meters) long and about seven feet wide.
“We are trying to cut the girders into pieces to see if anyone was trapped underneath. We tried to pull the girders up with cranes but they are too heavy,” he said.
Divers from the navy, meanwhile, scoured the pond but the girders have to be removed first to improve chances of finding more bodies.
Armed with sticks and stones, angry crowds attacked the site offices of the construction company after the flyover collapsed, forcing police to fire tear gas and use batons to disperse them, Hossain said.
The mob torched at least half a dozen vehicles and set construction material on fire.
Allegations of corruption were levelled at the flyover construction company in August when another girder had collapsed. But only one rickshawpuller was injured in that incident, police inspector Rajib Das said.
In September the World Bank said it was concerned about corruption in Bangladesh, reiterating that it would not get new funding for a bridge project until a credible probe into corruption around the project was undertaken.
The Washington-based institution said it was not yet prepared to reactivate financing for the $3 billion Padma road and rail bridge which was intended to connect the capital Dhaka to coastal districts.
