"Many more people, dead or alive, are still trapped inside," the fire service director general, Brig. Gen. Ali Ahmed Khan, told reporters, according to the national news agency, Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha.
Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir said army troops, fire service personnel, police and Rapid Action Battalion troops had been mobilized to the site on the outskirts of Dhaka.
"The fact is we don't know yet how many people were killed actually ... but I can tell you the building was not built in compliance with the (safety) rules and regulations," Alamgir said.
"Stern legal actions will be taken against the people who built the structure defying the codes or laws."
Work was proceeding slowly in order to avoid causing a further collapse, said Maj. Gen. Abul Hassan Sarwardy, commander of the army's Savar-based 9th Division.
Six hundred people had been taken to hospitals in Savar and Dhaka, and to a nearby military hospital, and 30 medical teams and other groups of doctors and paramedics were treating the injured at tents erected on the scene.
The commercial building housed three garment units, a branch of a bank and some 300 shops, the national news agency reported.
Comments
Post a Comment