Savar death toll continues to rise

The number of dead in the Savar tragedy has reached 1,109 on the 18th day of the worst-ever building collapse in Bangladesh’s history.

A temporary control room of the district administration, set up at local Adhar Chandra High School, gave out the number at around 6:30pm on Saturday.

So far, 808 dead bodies have been handed over to their relatives.

Bodies recovered from the wreckage are being taken to the school grounds where at least 36 bodies have been kept. Another 84 unidentified bodies are kept at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue.

Until now, 234 unclaimed bodies have been buried at the Jurain graveyard in the capital. Authorities have collected their DNA samples for future identification.

Nine-storied commercial block Rana Plaza caved in on Apr 24 morning with an unknown number of people, mostly readymade garment factory workers, inside. The illegally constructed building housed five factories where most of the workers were women.

On the 17th day on Friday, 19-year-old Reshma Akter was  pulled out alive from beneath the debris.

From Friday afternoon until Saturday morning 34 more bodies were recovered from the wreckage.

Rescuers have nearly finished clearing the rubble on the front side of the building. From May 7 night they started pulling the wreckage at the back.

Most of the bodies recovered now have been decomposed beyond recognition. Rescuers are trying to identify them with the mobile phones or identity cards if found on them.

Leading the rescue operation is General Officer Commanding (GOC) of Bangladesh Army's 9th Infantry Division Major General Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy. At a press conference on May 1, he had claimed that only 149 were missing. But over the past 10 days 688 bodies had been pulled out from the wreckage.

Workers, who had survived the collapse, claimed over 5,500 workers used to work at various outlets in the building.