Bangladesh Woman found alive in collapsed factory – 17 days after disaster

Rescue workers in Bangladesh have freed a survivor buried amid the wreckage of a garment factory building that collapsed 17 days ago.

The seamstress named as Reshma, was discovered after rescuers heard groaning - just moments before they were due to demolish a concrete slab surrounding the tiny space in which she was entombed. 

Reshma, who emerged almost unscathed, had been trapped in a prayer room and survived by scavenging for dried food and drinking spare amounts of water in the wreckage around her. Cranes and bulldozers immediately stopped work as handsaws were used to cut her out of the rubble. 

Reshma – believed to be her in her late teens – was been given food and water then taken to hospital. The miraculous rescue came as the death toll from the world’s worst industrial accident since India’s Bhopal disaster in 1984 today passed 1,000 – and is expected to keep climbing. Around 2,500 people were injured. 

Speaking from her hospital bed in Dhaka – where she was joined by her mother and sister – Reshma said: “It was so bad for me. I never dreamed I'd see the daylight again.

“I heard voices of the rescue workers for the past several days. I kept hitting the wreckage with sticks and rods just to attract their attention.“No one heard me. It was so bad for me. I never dreamed I'd see the daylight again.