Twenty more bodies were recovered from the wreckage of the collapsed Rana Plaza on Wednesday as rescuers continued their 2nd phase rescue operation for the second consecutive day, raising the death toll to 411.The rescuers pulled out 20 more corpses from the rubble of the building till this evening, sources at the coordination cell opened at the collapsed building site said.
GOC 9th Infantry Division Maj Gen Chowdhury Hasan Sarwardi, who is in charge of coordinating the rescue operation at collapsed building Rana Plaza at Savar, said 149 people are still missing in the tragic incident.
Addressing a press briefing here, the GOC came up with the number of the missing people as per a list prepared by the district administration.
He, however, did not elaborate how the list was made.
Earlier, on Tuesday, Hasan Sarwardi said the exact list of the number of workers working in the building on the fateful day was not available. But he said he had heard that nearly 3,200 workers used to work in the garment factories housed in Rana Plaza.
He said earlier the number of missing people was thought to be much higher than the present one as the names of same workers were put in different lists. “So, the number of missing people is being assumed to be five to six times more against the real figure.”
The GOC also said they will intensify the rescue operation soon.
He said relatives of the victims are searching for the bodies of their relatives in the trucks which are dumping the debris of the collapsed building which is hampering their rescue operation.
The rescuers comprising Army and Fire Service personnel recovered a total of 2834 people, including the deceased, the GOC said.
A total of 359 dead bodies were handed over to the relatives of the victims, Sarwardi added.
He said the rescue operation is being conducted with maximum caution for recovering the bodies unscathed. When the rescuers trace any dead body they stop the use of heavy equipment and retrieve it carefully.
The second phase of the rescue operation using heavy cranes, search cameras and trained dog squads has been going on since Tuesday midnight, he said.
“Our main target is to recover survivors or corpses from the debris of the collapsed building unscratched. So, the rescue operation is getting delayed,” Sarwardi told reporters.
He said they are conducting the rescue operation carefully for ensuring the safety of the two buildings situated on both sides of Rana Plaza.
However, the rescuers could not yet completely remove the roof of the topmost floor of the collapsed building even after eight days of the tragedy.
Relatives of the workers claimed that many bodies are still there trapped under debris of the three topmost floors of the Rana Plaza.
Several hundred people were seen waiting in front of the collapsed building on Wednesday in search of their near and dear ones with their photographs.UNB
