SAVAR, Bangladesh (AP) — The fugitive owner of an illegally constructed building that collapsed in Bangladesh in a deadly heap last week was captured Sunday at a border crossing with India by members of a commando force. Meanwhile, a fire broke out in the wreckage of the garment factory, with smoke pouring from the piles of shattered concrete and some rescue efforts forced to stop.
Mohammed Sohel Rana was arrested in Benapole in western Bangladesh, just as he was about to flee into India’s West Bengal state, said Jahangir Kabir Nanak, junior minister for local government. Mr. Rana was brought back by helicopter to the capital, Dhaka, where he faced charges of negligence.
Mr. Rana’s capture by the Rapid Action Battalion brought cheers and applause when it was announced on a loudspeaker at the site of the collapsed building in the Dhaka suburb of Savar, where search-and-rescue operations were continuing through the night.
Officials said the fire broke out because of sparks generated as rescuers tried to cut through a steel rod to reach a survivor. Firefighters were trying to bring the fire under control.
Rescuers have retreated from the part of the wreckage where the fire was located but were still trying to reach survivors in other parts of the destroyed eight-story building.
Officials say at least three rescue workers have been injured in the fire.
At least 377 people are confirmed to have died in the collapse of the building on Wednesday. Three of its floors were built illegally.
The death toll is expected to rise, but it is already the deadliest disaster to hit Bangladesh’s garment industry, which is worth $20 billion annually and is a mainstay of the economy. The collapse and previous disasters in garment factories have focused attention on the poor working conditions of workers who toil for as little as $38 a month to produce clothing for top international brands.
Mr. Rana was presented before the media briefly at the commando force’s headquarters in Dhaka. Wearing a printed shirt, an exhausted and disheveled Mr. Rana was sweating as two security officers held him by his arms. A security official helped him to drink water after he gestured he was thirsty. He did not speak to the media during the 10-minute appearance, after which he was taken away. He is likely to be handed over to local police, who will have to charge him and produce him in court within 24 hours.
A small-time politician from the ruling party, Mr. Rana had been on the run since Wednesday. He last appeared in public in front of his Rana Plaza on Tuesday after huge cracks appeared in the building. However, he assured tenants, including five garment factories, that the building was safe, according to witnesses.
A bank and some shops on the first floor shut their premises on Wednesday after police ordered an evacuation, but managers of the garment factories on the upper floor told workers to continue their shifts.
Hours later, Rana Plaza was reduced to rubble, crushing most victims under massive blocks of concrete and mortar. A garment manufacturers group said the factories in the building employed 3,122 workers, but it was not clear how many were inside it when the building collapsed. About 2,500 survivors have been accounted for.
On Sunday, rescuers were supposed to start using heavy equipment to drill a central hole from the top to look for survivors and dead bodies. But the operation was delayed after rescuers located a woman inside the building and were trying to pull her out.
Army Maj. Gen. Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy, the coordinator of the rescue operations, said that so far, rescuers have been manually shifting concrete blocks with the help of light equipment such as pickaxes and shovels.
The next phase will involve manual efforts as well as heavy equipment, including hydraulic cranes and cutters to bore a hole from the top of the collapsed building, he told reporters.
The purpose is to “continue the operation to recover both survivors and dead bodies. In this stage, we have no other choice but to use some heavy equipment. We will start it within a few hours. Manual operation and use of small equipment is not enough,” he said.
The work will be carried out carefully so as not to mutilate bodies, he said. All the equipment is in place, “from a small blade to everything. We have engaged many private-sector companies which supplied us equipment, even some heavy ones.”
In rare good news, a female worker was pulled out alive on Sunday. Hasan Akbari, a rescuer, said when he tried to extricate a man next to the woman, “he said his body was being torn apart. So I had to let go. But God willing, we will be able to rescue him with more help very soon.”
On Saturday, police arrested three owners of two factories. Also under detention are Mr. Rana’s wife and two government engineers who were involved in giving approval for the building design. Local television stations reported that the Bangladesh High Court has frozen the bank accounts of the owners of all five garment factories in the collapsed building.
Mr. Rana was a local leader of the ruling Awami League’s youth front. His arrest, and that of the factory owners, was ordered by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is also the Awami League leader.
The disaster is the worst ever for the country’s booming and powerful garment industry, surpassing a fire five months ago that killed 112 people and brought widespread pledges to improve worker-safety standards. But since then, very little has changed in Bangladesh, where low wages have made it a magnet for numerous global brands.
Bangladesh’s garment industry was the third largest in the world in 2011, after China and Italy, having grown rapidly in the past decade. The country’s minimum wage is the equivalent of about $38 a month.
Among the garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac, Ether Tex, New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms. Altogether, they produced several million shirts, pants and other garments a year.
The New Wave companies, according to their website, make clothing for several major North American and European retailers.
Britain’s Primark acknowledged it was using a factory in Rana Plaza, but many other retailers distanced themselves from the disaster, saying they were not involved with the factories at the time of the collapse or had not ordered garments from them recently.
Wal-Mart said none of its clothing had been authorized to be made in the facility, but it is investigating whether there was any unauthorized production.
• AP writers Farid Hossain and Gillian Wong in Dhaka contributed to this article.
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