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Survivor found as Pakistan factory toll hits 19

07 February 2012 23:46 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Pakistani rescuers on Tuesday plucked survivors from the rubble of a collapsed factory in Lahore, where another 10 people are still buried under the debris and the death toll rose to 19, APA reports quoting news,yahoo.com website.

The three-storey building used to manufacture veterinary medicines caved in from a probable boiler and a gas cylinder explosion at the premises in the congested Multan Road area of Pakistan’s second largest city on Monday.

As the grim search for survivors continued into a second day, there was a brief period of jubilation when a woman aged about 70 was pulled out alive from the rubble more than 30 hours after the disaster.

Emergency teams dug through the debris with their bare hands, hammers, chisels and shovels, desperate to answer diminishing cries for help from mostly women and children trapped beneath concrete slabs.

"According to information we have received from relatives, 10 people are still missing," local rescue chief Rizwan Naseer told AFP.

"There are chances that some people have found space under the rubble and if they have water, they can survive longer," he said.

Initial estimates of 50, even up to 100 people trapped under the debris were exaggerated, Naseer said.

Police official Shoaib Khurram told AFP that 19 people were confirmed dead. Among them were at least 11 women, three young girls and three boys.

Local residents said the factory failed to comply with regulations and had been shut down twice since 2008, but that the owners reopened each time.

"The owners violated the court orders and broke the seals," said top local administration official Ahad Cheema.

The collapse of the Orient Labs (Private) Limited factory spotlighted poor safety procedures among Pakistani manufacturers and the use of child labour.

Sixteen-year-old Parveen Bibi, her left leg fractured, was crying in the corridor outside the operating theatre at the state-run Jinnah Hospital.

Her cousin Mudassir Ali, 22, said Bibi was one of four sisters who worked at the factory. Nasreen, 17, died and the other three were injured.

"Their father is a poor building mason with meagre income," Ali told AFP.

"They have three younger brothers. The youngest is two years old. The sisters wanted to celebrate his birthday on February 18... Last month they all decided to work in the factory and earn some money for the birthday," she said.

"Poverty brought them here. Only poor people suffer, the rich prosper. They are safe and only workers were killed."

Jinnah Hospital said it had received 31 injured people, seven of them still in the surgical ward which was smelly and crowded.

Welder Mohammad Amin, who suffered minor facial injuries, said he had just arrived at the factory on Monday morning then the explosion happened.

"The whole building shook with a huge noise and everything tumbled down as if a massive earthquake has struck," he told AFP.

"The roof fell in. There was an iron table nearby and I survived with its support," the 40-year-old said. "I remained there and kept shouting for help, and eventually the rescue workers pulled me out three hours later."

Eight million people live in Lahore, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) southeast of the capital Islamabad. It is considered Pakistan’s cultural capital and perhaps the most liberal city in the conservative Muslim country.