Death toll reaches 1000; survivor found after 16 days

Bangladeshi rescuers retrieve garment worker Reshmi from the rubble of a collapsed building in Savar. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

A WOMAN was pulled alive from the ruins of a garment factory complex in Bangladesh more than 16 days after it collapsed and killed more than 1000 people, live television footage showed.

The miraculous rescue came shortly after emergency officials announced that the woman called Reshmi had been located under the rubble of the nine-storey Rana Plaza complex after crying out for help.

A report on Bangladesh's Somoy TV said that she had been found sheltering in the ruins of a basement mosque.

Rescuers cheered loudly as she was carried to an army ambulance, managing a faint smile at the crowds who had gathered.

The country's fire service chief told AFP that the woman appeared to have had access to water during her marathon ordeal trapped underneath the wreckage of the nine-storey Rana Plaza complex, which had caved in on April 24.

"She has been located in a gap between a beam and a column. Her name is Reshmi. She may have reserves of water or have drunk some of the water that we've pumped into the building," Ahmed Ali told AFP.

One of the rescuers said that the woman had cried out for help as recovery teams sifted through the wreckage in the town of Savar on the outskirts of the capital Dhaka.

"As we were clearing rubble, we called out if anyone was alive," the unnamed rescuer told the private Somoy TV channel. "Then we heard her saying 'please save me, please save me'."

Another rescuer said that the woman had had access to food supplies for the first fortnight of her ordeal but had run out two days ago.

"She said she has not eaten for the last two days. She said she has eaten some dried food like biscuits," said the rescuer. "She said she had found a safe place and found some air and light."

News of the miracle survival came as recovery teams were preparing to wrap up their work at the site after discovering scores more corpses in the tangle of concrete overnight.

Brigadier General Siddiqul Alam, one of the leaders of the recovery operation, said the toll now stands at 1,041, making it one of the world's deadliest industrial disasters.

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