Hopes faded on Sunday for survivors trapped inside a six-storey building a day after it collapsed in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, killing at least 16 people, an official said.
Rescuers with search lights and crowbars sifted overnight through the rubble of the building, but no bodies or survivors were found, said Brigadier General Nizam Ahmed, who was in charge of the rescue operation.
”It is unlikely to find any survivors after a day of the accident,” Ahmed said.
Rescue workers on Saturday pulled 14 bodies from the debris in Dhaka’s central Tejgaon industrial district, Ahmed said. Another two died on the way to a hospital.
Initial estimates from witnesses said about 100 people were in the building when it came down, but Ahmed said on Sunday the number was likely substantially less.
”Initially we got confusing figures from relatives and survivors, but now I think it will be less than a dozen people,” he said.
Soldiers and firefighters on Sunday used bulldozers and light tools to clear away the rubble to find survivors or bodies.
”We are working very carefully so no trapped survivor is hurt,” Ahmed said. ”It may take at least five days to completely clear the debris with the equipment available.”
Local resident Mizanur Rahman, who lives nearby, said most of those injured or killed appeared to be construction workers who were adding a new storey to the 30-year-old building, which was being converted into a 500-bed medical centre. Witnesses said passing pedestrians were also among the victims, which included dozens of injured who were taken to hospital.
”I was fitting tiles with 10 other colleagues when the roof collapsed on us with a big bang. Everything suddenly became dark,” construction worker Shahaj Uddin said from his hospital bed where he was being treated for head injuries.
Uddin said there were at least 70 workers inside the building when it collapsed.
Emdadul Islam, the chief engineer of the Capital Development Authority, said the collapse may have been caused by the new construction. ”We are working to determine the flaws [that caused the collapse],” he said.
More than two dozen tin-roofed, one-room township homes were also buried by the 1 800-square-metre building as it collapsed, Ahmed said.
Many of the injured survivors may need to have their legs or hands amputated, physician Munir Hossain, who treated a dozen of those critically injured at a nearby hospital, said.
The owner of the building was not available for comment. — Sapa-AP