Fugitive owner arrested as Bangladesh building collapse death toll climbs

[NBCNews]

APMohammed Sohel Rana, the fugitive owner of an illegally-constructed building that collapsed last week in Bangladesh. By Ruma Paul and Serajul Quadir, ReutersDHAKA — The owner of a factory building that collapsed in Bangladesh killing hundreds of  garment workers was arrested on Sunday while trying to flee to India, officials said, as hopes of  finding more survivors from the country's worst industrial accident began to  fade.

Mohammed Sohel Rana was arrested by the elite Rapid Action  Battalion in the border town of Benapole, Dhaka District Police Chief Habibur  Rahman told Reuters, ending a four-day manhunt that began after Rana Plaza,  which housed factories making low-cost garments for Western retailers, caved in  on Wednesday.


Bangladesh television showed Rana, a local leader of the  ruling Awami League's youth front, being flown by helicopter to the capital  Dhaka, where he will face charges of faulty construction and causing unlawful  death.

Authorities put the latest death toll at 377 and expect it to  climb higher with hundreds more still unaccounted for.

Four people were  pulled out alive on Sunday after almost 100 hours beneath the mound of broken  concrete and metal, and rescuers were working frantically to try to save several  others still trapped, fire services deputy director Mizanur Rahman said.

Follow @NBCNewsWorld "The chances of finding people alive are dimming, so we have to step up  our rescue operation to save any valuable life we can," said Major General  Chowdhury Hassan Sohrawardi, coordinator of the operation at the site.

About 2,500 people have been rescued from the wrecked building in the  commercial suburb of Savar, about 30 km (20 miles) from the capital, Dhaka.

Officials said the eight-storey complex had been built on spongy ground  without the correct permits, and more than 3,000 workers - mainly young women -  entered the building on Wednesday morning despite warnings that it was  structurally unsafe.

A bank and shops in the same building closed after  a jolt was felt and cracks were noticed on some pillars on Tuesday.

Police said one factory owner gave himself up on Sunday following the  detention of two plant bosses and two engineers the day before.

Anger  over the disaster has sparked days of protests and clashes, with police using  tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets to quell demonstrators who set cars  ablaze.The owner of a building that collapsed killing hundreds has been arrested in Bangladesh. As many as 900 people remain missing in the ruins of the building in Dhaka. Rescuers are still pulling people alive from the rubble, but the pace has slowed, and the number of dead seems certain to rise from the current count of 360. ITN Piers Hopkirk reports.Garment workers blockaded a highway in a nearby industrial zone  of Gazipur on Sunday demanding capital punishment for the owners.

The  main opposition, joining forces with an alliance of leftist parties which is  part of the ruling coalition, called for a national strike on May 2 in protest  over the incident.

BUILT ON A FILLED-IN POND

Wednesday's  collapse was the third major industrial incident in five months in Bangladesh,  the second-largest exporter of garments in the world behind China. In November,  a fire at the Tazreen Fashion factory in a suburb of Dhaka killed 112 people.

Such incidents have raised serious questions about worker safety and low  wages, and could taint the reputation of the poor South Asian country, which  relies on garments for 80 percent of its exports. The industry employs about 3.6  million people, most of them women, some of whom earn as little as $38 a month.

Emdadul Islam, chief engineer of the state-run Capital Development  Authority (CDA), said on Friday that the owner of the building had not received  the proper construction consent, obtaining a permit for a five-storey building  from the local municipality, which did not have the authority to grant it.

Furthermore, another three storeys had been added illegally, he said.  "Savar is not an industrial zone, and for that reason no factory can be housed  in Rana Plaza," Islam told Reuters.

Islam said the building had been  erected on the site of a pond filled in with sand and earth, weakening the  foundations.

North American and European chains, including British  retailer Primark and Canada's Loblaw, a unit of George Weston Ltd, said they  were supplied by factories in the Rana Plaza building.

Since the  disaster, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA)  has asked factory owners to produce building designs by July in a bid to improve  safety.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

NBC News