[h=3]By SYED ZAIN AL-MAHMOOD[/h]DHAKA, Bangladesh—The death toll from a factory-building collapse 17 days ago rose rapidly Saturday to 1,110 people, salvage workers said.
A day after rescuers hauled a survivor, Reshma Akter Begum, out of the rubble of Rana Plaza, the work of recovering scores of dead bodies continued.
On Saturday, those combing the mountain of steel and concrete found another 100 corpses.
The surprising rescue of Ms. Begum, a factory seamstress in her 20s, had rekindled hope among the relatives of those still missing that more survivors could be in the rubble.
Crowds of families clutching photos of loved ones, who had begun to thin in the days before Ms. Begum was rescued, returned to the site Saturday.
But optimism appeared to fade for many as the army, which is leading the salvage operations, renewed efforts to clear away the detritus of the disaster using bulldozers.
The Rana Plaza collapse is one of the worst industrial accidents in history. The death toll has risen by around 100 people per day over the past week.
It remains unclear how much higher the list of those killed will go, largely because there are no records of who was present when the building, just outside Dhaka, collapsed on April 24.
The five factories in the eight-story building produced clothes for Western brands, including Benetton SpA and Loblaw Cos.
Ms. Begum told rescuers she had fallen from a factory on the third floor to a pitch-black basement prayer room, where she had enough space to move around.
Three companions in the same area subsequently died of injuries incurred during the fall and Ms. Begum survived eating food and water from their backpacks.
These provisions ran out two days before her rescue. On Saturday, Ms. Begum was recovering in a military hospital, where she is suffering from dehydration but no major injuries, according to doctors.
Write to Syed Zain Al-Mahmood at [email protected]
A day after rescuers hauled a survivor, Reshma Akter Begum, out of the rubble of Rana Plaza, the work of recovering scores of dead bodies continued.
On Saturday, those combing the mountain of steel and concrete found another 100 corpses.
The surprising rescue of Ms. Begum, a factory seamstress in her 20s, had rekindled hope among the relatives of those still missing that more survivors could be in the rubble.
Crowds of families clutching photos of loved ones, who had begun to thin in the days before Ms. Begum was rescued, returned to the site Saturday.
But optimism appeared to fade for many as the army, which is leading the salvage operations, renewed efforts to clear away the detritus of the disaster using bulldozers.
The Rana Plaza collapse is one of the worst industrial accidents in history. The death toll has risen by around 100 people per day over the past week.
It remains unclear how much higher the list of those killed will go, largely because there are no records of who was present when the building, just outside Dhaka, collapsed on April 24.
The five factories in the eight-story building produced clothes for Western brands, including Benetton SpA and Loblaw Cos.
Ms. Begum told rescuers she had fallen from a factory on the third floor to a pitch-black basement prayer room, where she had enough space to move around.
Three companions in the same area subsequently died of injuries incurred during the fall and Ms. Begum survived eating food and water from their backpacks.
These provisions ran out two days before her rescue. On Saturday, Ms. Begum was recovering in a military hospital, where she is suffering from dehydration but no major injuries, according to doctors.
Write to Syed Zain Al-Mahmood at [email protected]