People gathered after the collapse of an eight-story building near Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Wednesday.
NEW DELHI – An eight-story building in Bangladesh that housed several garment factories collapsed on Wednesday morning, killing at least 70 people, injuring hundreds of others, and leaving an unknown number of people trapped in the rubble, according to Bangladeshi officials and media outlets.
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The building collapse occurred in Savar, a suburb of the national capital of Dhaka, and is the latest tragic accident to afflict Bangladesh’s garment industry. Bangladesh is the world’s second-leading garment exporter, trailing only China, but the industry has been beset with safety concerns, angry protests over rock-bottom wages and other problems.
This latest fatal accident, coming five months months after a fire at the Tazreen Fashions factory killed at least 112 garment workers, is likely to again raise questions about work conditions in Bangladesh: workers told Bangladeshi news outlets that supervisors had ordered them to attend work on Wednesday, even though cracks were discovered in the building on Tuesday.
Photographs showed rescue workers in hard hats climbing ladders into the pancaked structure, even as hundreds of people crowded outside, waiting to see if survivors could be pulled from the wreckage. Bangladesh’s Health Minister AFM Ruhal Haque told reporters that at least 70 people were killed, more than 600 were injured and others remained trapped.
