Race to save survivors screaming in the rubble: Death toll in Primark factory disaster rises to 161 as Bangladeshis queue to identify bodies - Around 2,000 people have been pulled from the building which collapsed without warning yesterday morning
Police said factory owners appeared to have ignored a warning after crack was detected on Tuesday
Workers tell how they were threatened with the sack if they refused to go work after seeing the cracks
Charges of criminal negligence have been filed against the building's owner
Rescue workers continued to hunt for survivors today in the collapsed factory building in Bangladesh where a range of companies made clothes for familiar High Street brands.
About 2,000 people have so far been rescued from the wrecked eight-storey Rana Plaza building in Savar on the outskirts of Dhakar, authorities said. The death toll has so far reached 161.
The building which housed a number of garment factories employing hundreds of people making clothes for the likes of Primark and Matalan came crashing down yesterday morning.
Rising death toll: A rescue worker comforts a survivor pulled from the rubble of the collapsed Rana Plaza building, in Savar, 19 miles outside Dhaka, this morning
Medical emergency: About 2,000 people have so far been rescued from the wrecked eight-storey building and the death toll has so far reached 161
In pain: Many of those working in the building were young women, while some of those killed and injured are bound to be children as the building also housed a crèche
Workers trapped in the wreckage could be heard crying out for help as firefighters and soldiers using drilling machines and cranes struggled to reach them.
Many of those working in the building at the time were young women, while some of those killed and injured are bound to be children as the building also housed a crèche.
Doctors at local hospitals said they were unable to cope with the number of victims arriving from the disaster site.
Sumi, a 25-year-old worker who goes by one name, said she was sewing jeans on the fifth floor with at least 400 others when the building fell.
'It collapsed all of a sudden,' she said. 'No shaking, no indication. It just collapsed on us.' She said she managed to reach a hole in the building where rescuers pulled her out.
The price of cheap clothes? The building which housed a number of garment factories employing hundreds of people making clothes for the likes of Primark and Matalan came crashing down yesterday morning
Bravery: Firefighters clamber into the collapsed structure as they desperately try to locate and rescue those still trapped inside
Tragedy: At least one worker in the building, which had developed cracks prior to the collapse, has told how they were threatened with the sack if they didn't get to work yesterday morning
A relative of a garment worker checks a body being taken from the site as she searches for her relative: Bangladesh is an important supplier of clothes for cheap - and not-so-cheap - High Street brands
Women mourn for relatives trapped inside the collapsed building: Tens of thousands of people rushed to the site, weeping and desperately searching for family members
A woman cries for her relative who has been pulled dead from the wreckage: The disaster has reignited questions about often lethal conditions in the country's clothing industry
People mourn in front of the remains of their relatives who died inside the rubble: Authorities said the building had violated construction codes with three more floors than permitted
A relative holds a picture of a garment worker who is missing as others file past bodies: Police and the government's Capital Development Authority have filed cases of negligence against the building owner
The disaster has reignited questions about often lethal conditions in the country's clothing industry, which is an important supplier of clothes for cheap - and not-so-cheap - High Street brands.
It came less than five months after a factory fire killed 112 people and underscored the unsafe conditions faced by Bangladesh's garment workers.
Workers said they hesitated to enter the building yesterday because it had developed such large cracks a day earlier that it even drew the attention of local news channels.
They were encouraged to get to work by factory managers. Hours later it collapsed.
Tens of thousands of people rushed to the site, weeping and desperately searching for family members. Rescuers made use of the huge rolls of fabric kept at the site as makeshift escape chutes.
They worked through the night to get through the jumbled mess of concrete with drills or their bare hands, passing water and torches to those who remained pinned inside the building.
Escape: Rescuers used massive strips of cloth as escape chutes from the textile factories to help the workers escape the devastation after the eight-storey building collapsed in Bangladesh
Destroyed: The building housed several garment factories and collapsed near Bangladesh's capital yesterday, killing at least 149 people and trapping many more in the rubble
Business: Matalan also took orders from one of the factories in the building until two months ago
Rescue: Brig. Gen. Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder said 149 people have been confirmed dead and another 600 survivors had been rescued
Terrifying: A distressed woman is seen going down the temporary escape - fire fighters and army personnel worked frantically through the morning at the Rana Plaza building in Savar
Grim: Rescue workers use clothes to bring down survivors and bodies after the collapse
Abdur Rahim, who worked on the fifth floor, said a factory manager gave assurances that the cracks in the building were no cause for concern, so employees went inside.
'After about an hour or so, the building collapsed suddenly,' Mr Rahim said. The next thing he remembers is regaining consciousness outside.
Survivor Shaheena Akhter, 23, said: 'Some of us did not want to work fearing something might happen, but the garment factory people told us that we had to join our work otherwise we will lose our jobs.'
Bangladeshi home minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir told reporters on a visit to the site that the building had violated construction codes and that 'the culprits would be punished'
Abdul Halim, an official with the engineering department in Savar, said the owner was originally allowed to construct a five-storey building but he added another three stories illegally.
Local police chief Mohammed Asaduzzaman said police and the government's Capital Development Authority have filed separate cases of negligence against the building owner.
Habibur Rahman, police superintendent of Dhaka district, identified the owner as Mohammed Sohel Rana, a local leader of ruling Awami League's youth front. Mr Rahman said police were also looking for the owners of the garment factories.
Escape: Bangladeshi garment workers use lengths of material to evacuate from the rubble
Safety: Buildings in the crowded city of Dhaka are sometimes erected without permission and many do not comply with construction regulations. Dozens died when a garment factory collapsed in the same area eight years ago
'It looks like an earthquake has struck here,' said one resident as he looked on at the chaotic scene of smashed concrete
Collapse: The building near Bangladesh's capital housed several garment factories and was likely to be packed
Medical help: A garment worker who was trapped under the rubble is carried to safety by a rescuer
Punish: Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir told reporters during a visit to the site that the building had violated construction codes and 'the culprits would be punished'
Among the textile businesses in the building were Phantom Apparels, New Wave Style, New Wave Bottoms and New Wave Brothers.
According to its website, the New Wave companies make clothing for major brands including U.S. retailers The Children's Place and Dress Barn, Britain's Primark, Spain's Mango and Italy's Benetton.
Mango and Benetton denied any links to the building's factories, but Primark confirmed that one of the suppliers it uses to produce some of its goods was located on the second floor.
The firm said it was 'shocked and deeply saddened by the appalling incident'.
It added that it has been working with other retailers to review the country's approach to factory standards and will push for this review to include building integrity.
Primark's ethical trade team is working to collect information, assess which communities the workers come from and provide support 'where possible', the company said.
Race against time: Firefighters and soldiers using drilling machines and cranes worked together with local volunteers in the search for other survivors from the building, which pancaked onto itself and stood only about two stories tall
The collapse stirred memories of a fatal fire in a garment factory in November that killed 112 people and raised an outcry about safety in the nation's garment industry
Packed: The collapse happened about 8:30 a.m. and since garment factories in the area routinely work 24 hours a day, it appeared likely that the four housed in the building were staffed at the time
Search: Tens of thousands of people gathered at the site, some of them weeping survivors, some searching for family members
Risky: Hundreds of people could be seen clambering around the unsafe site in a desperate bid to find survivors yesterday morning
Devastated: A woman cries on the site of the damaged building as she watches the rescue operation
Business: The country has about 4,000 garment factories and exports clothes to leading Western retailers. The industry wields vast power in the South Asian nation
Anxious wait: Relative and friends arrived at the site holding pictures of missing garment workers in an attempt to locate them
Anxious wait: It is not clear what caused the collapse but local media reports said a crack was detected in the block on Tuesday
Concern: People mourn for their relatives, who are trapped inside the rubble - thousands of people descended on the site
Charles Kernaghan, executive director of the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, which has an office in Dhaka, says his staff are investigating.
He hopes his team, working with local workers' groups, will be able to find out which brands were having their products made at the time of the collapse.
'You can't trust many buildings in Bangladesh,' Mr Kernaghan said. 'It's so corrupt that you can buy off anybody and there won't be any retribution.' ( dailymail.co.uk )
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