Pakistan factory collapse: Trapped under debris, thirsty worker speaks to media

Latest: Rescuers search for survivors of Pakistan factory collapse

Pakistani rescuers have pulled more than 100 survivors from the rubble of a collapsed factory and are searching for dozens of others believed still trapped in a disaster that has killed at least 19, officials said Thursday.

Soldiers and rescuers in Lahore were carefully cutting through steel and using cranes to lift the debris of the building in a bid to find people still alive, with survivors telling AFP that many of the workers had been children.

Medics had to amputate one man's leg on the site before rushing him to hospital.

"One of his legs was trapped in such a way that it was not possible to retrieve him with both legs," an official who did not want to be named told AFP. "We had no other option."

One worker still trapped in the rubble told SAMAA TV early Thursday that he is pinned under a girder, but alive and feeling thirsty.

Families on the scene were struggling to reach the site, crying and at times scuffling with police and soldiers holding them back. "I have to go there, even if they are going to shoot me," one elderly man said.

It was unclear how many people were in the building when it collapsed or how many -- dead or alive -- may still be trapped. Officials have put the total number of those involved at around 150-200.

Rescue services spokesman Jam Sajjad Hussain said Thursday it was "difficult" to give a specific number, but said workers had told officials that around 200 people had been inside at the time of the collapse, including the owner, though that was unconfirmed.

"Rescue work is ongoing and I fear that the death toll may increase," he said.

Factory employee Mohammad Navid told AFP Thursday that dozens of shift workers may have been sleeping in a part of the building that rescuers had not yet reached, and that children as young as 12 had been working in the factory.

Another employee, 18-year-old Mohammad Irfan, told AFP from his hospital bed that the workers were "mostly" were aged between 14 and 25.

Chief doctor Zia Ullah at Jinnah Hospital, where some survivors were taken, said Wednesday that the majority of the victims were young workers, with many suffering head injuries and fractured limbs.

Mohammad Usman, the top administration official in Lahore who is coordinating the response to the disaster, said Thursday that 102 people had been rescued, and that the focus of the operation remained the search for survivors.

Rescuers were using audio and video technology as they searched, he said. Cranes and machinery provided by the army were also being used.

The collapse occurred at the four-storey Rajput Polyester polythene bag factory in the Sundar industrial estate, around 45 kilometres (30 miles) southwest of Lahore's city centre.

Earlier

At least 18 people were killed and 51 injured when the roof of a factory collapsed near the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore Wednesday, officials said, with around a hundred more still trapped.

The incident comes less than two weeks after a powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake ripped across Afghanistan and Pakistan, killing nearly 390 people, levelling thousands of homes, and causing structural damage to major buildings.

"We have recovered 18 dead bodies and more than 70 people alive, 51 of them are injured and have been taken to hospitals," said Mohammad Usman, the top administration official in Lahore who was coordinating the response to the disaster in the city, the capital of Punjab province.

"Rescue work is ongoing," he said as teams of rescuers, police and soldiers worked through the night under lights searching for survivors beneath the rubble of the four-storey factory.

The army said it was deploying specialist search teams and engineers to help the rescue effort.

The collapse occurred at a Rajput Polyester polythene bag factory in the Sundar industrial estate around 45 kilometres (30 miles) southwest of the city centre.

Jam Sajjad Hussain, a spokesman for the rescue services, said 100 people were still trapped several hours after the roof collapsed, while ambulances were taking the injured to hospital.

"All our rescue workers are on site but it is such a big incident that we have called rescue workers from other nearby districts," he added.

Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif said it was possible the building had been damaged after the October 26 earthquake.

"I have heard about the earthquake affecting the building, but according to labourers the owner continued to build an extension," he told reporters.
 
Poor safety record

Three cranes, a bulldozer and more than 40 emergency rescue vehicles were working at the site, a rescue official said.

But provincial spokesman Zaeem Qadri told reporters that progress was slow because the factory was at the end of a narrow lane making it difficult for excavators to reach the site.

He added that an emergency has been declared at all local hospitals.

Chief doctor Zia Ullah of Jinnah Hospital where some injured have been taken said most of the victims were young workers, with many suffering head injuries and fractured limbs.

Pakistan has a poor safety record in the construction and maintenance of buildings.

Last year, a mosque collapsed in the same city, killing at least 24 people.

More than 200 people lost their lives to collapsed roofs following torrential rainfall and flooding in 2014.

In 2012, more than 255 workers were killed when a fire tore through a clothing factory in Karachi, one of the deadliest industrial accidents in Pakistani history.

A judicial probe into the blaze was damning, pointing to a lack of emergency exits, poor safety training of workers, the packing in of machinery and the failure of government inspectors to spot any of these faults.

A murder case was registered against the factory owners, but it has never come to trial.

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