At least 25 labourers were killed and dozens injured when an under construction factory collapsed in Lahore Wednesday evening, rescue and city administration officials said.
More than 70 people have been rescued from under the debris so far, DCO Lahore Capt (retd) Mohammad Usman said.
“The rescue workers have so far retrieved 25 dead bodies while at least 40 injured have been taken to hospitals,” Usman, the city's top administration official who was coordinating the response to the disaster, said.
Later, Edhi officials confirmed it to South Punjab News that they have shifted 18 bodies to the hospital.
The injured labourers, few of them critical, have been shifted to Jinnah Hospital and Sharif Hospital where they are being given emergency medical treatment.Search and rescue operation
Rescue officials further said around 100 people are feared trapped under the debris, including underage employees, and the death toll is expected to rise.
The factory is located in Lahore's Sundar Industrial Estate and manufactures polythene bags.
Rescue officials are currently facing difficulties in carrying out rescue operations and are using heavy machinery to pull out bodies and survivors.The DCO Lahore said that the actual number of casualties will be ascertained once the rescue operation is completed.He, however, claimed that all available resources are being utilised to carry out the rescue and relief operation.Army teams have also reached the site and are carrying out search and rescue operation alongside the city administration teams, the ISPR said.The military was flying urban search-and-rescue teams to the scene, said a military spokesman in a text message.“Army engineers have been immediately moved for the rescue operation,” the message said.
Screams for help
Eye witnesses say they can hear the screams of help of those trapped under the collapsed structure.
Several labourers told news channels that the building had developed cracks during the quake, but the factory's owner pressed ahead with construction of a fourth storey.
“We told the owner to build additional pillars before beginning the fourth floor but he took no notice of it,” one labourer said.
A labourer, Rafique, while talking to South Punjab News, said they were busy in construction work on the fourth floor when the building collapsed.
He said more than 150 labourers were working in the factory at the time of the incident.
The factory's fourth storey was currently under construction.The director general Rescue 1122 is himself present at the scene and is monitoring the relief and rescue operation.
The cause of the building collapse is currently not clear but it comes over a week after a magnitude-7.5 earthquake hit the northern parts of the country, killing 273 people and damaging nearly 75,000 homes.
In 2013, more than 255 workers were killed when afire 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 for 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.
Heavy machinery from a nearby Bahria Town construction operation also reached the site of the incident to help with the rescue and relief operations.
Medicines and water bottles are being passed to those trapped under the rubble.
The four storey building had many workers sleeping on the third floor when the building collapsed.
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