Bid to free workers buried alive The Australian 13/04/07

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What price your cheap clothes, toys and gifts??? This was a NINE story seat-shop. And the people......???

DHAKA: Rescuers were using shovels and their bare hands in a desperate search yesterday for more than 90 people trapped after a nine-storey factory collapsed in Bangladesh, killing at least 23 workers.
They warned that time was running out for anyone caught under the debris of the building that crashed down on Monday, with the rescue operation hampered by a lack of concrete-cutting equipment.
"We are still doing things manually. We cannot use lifting equipment because we have to use caution in case there are people still alive underneath the debris," said arm Brigadier General Nizam Ahmed, who was heading the rescue operation.
He said a concrete-cutting machine was due to arrive at the scene late yesterday.
The Spectrum Sweater and knitting Industries factory at Palash Bari, 30km northwest of the capital, Dhaka, was packed with night-shift workers when in caved in early on Monday, local time, after a boiler exploded. Salim Newaz Khan, of Dhaka fire brigade, said it would take at least three more days to reach all those trapped.
Ninety-one people had been reported missing by relatives and 108 people had been rescued.
Firefighters have been digging through the debris from six points to reach victims.
One man called police on his mobile telephone to say he was trapped with 20 other people but rescuers were unable to contact him again and have not yet managed to find him.
Survivors said the building collapsed after a loud explosion.
"Within two or three minutes, the whole building started to shake violently," said Mahubur Rahman, 30, who was working on the fourth floor with about 90 others.
A crowd of several thousand, including distraught relatives, waited at the scene for a second day yesterday for news of the missing workers.
The factory appeared to have been built on low-lying marshland that might have been filled in with cement to allow construction, officials said.
The practice is common in Bangladesh, where land comes at a premium.