Hundreds were injured and more than 70 killed when an eight-story building that housed factories and shopping stores on the outskirts of Bangladesh collapsed on Wednesday.
Firefighters and emergency responders were in full recovery mode, trying to pull survivors from the Rana Plaza building in the city of Savar, which is 19 miles outside Dhaka, The Associated Press reported. The government health secretary said at least 76 have been confirmed dead.
Reuters said that an estimated 2,000 people were in the building at the time of collapse. A firefighter reported that the upper floors simply crumbled and fell.
“It looks like an earthquake has struck here,” one resident told AP.
Bangladesh’s garment industry has been marked by similar tragedies for years. Just this past November, 112 factory workers were killed in a fire at a plant in Dhaka.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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