'Save us, brother, I beg you'

Forty people have been found alive in a room in a collapsed garment factory in Bangladesh in a rescue operation broadcast live on national television.

The rescue was greeted with loud cheers by thousands of people gathered at the scene of the country's worst industrial accident, near the capital, Dhaka.

More than 230 people are so far known to have died in Wednesday's disaster.

More than 3100 machinists worked in four factories on the top floor of the Rana Plaza, making cheap clothes for Western brands. But only about 1400 have so far been accounted for.

Police are trying to establish how many of them were working inside when the eight-storey building collapsed.

"We've found 40 people alive in a room," an army spokesman said at the scene. "They are being rescued."

Deputy Dhaka district police chief ABM Masud Hossain said that, because of an anti-government strike in Dhaka, many employees were not at work when the building collapsed.

Rescuers were yesterday racing against time to find trapped survivors.

Volunteers said they believed that about 300 employees were lying dead under the concrete pillars and shards of the collapsed top two floors.

Some of those trapped called out to rescue workers, pleading to be saved. One, called Altab, said: "Save us, brother. I beg you, brother. I want to live. It's so painful here . I have two little children."

Another, weeping, called out: "We want to live, brother; it's hard to remain alive here. It would have been better to die than enduring such pain to live on. We want to live. Please save us."

Engineers appointed by the building's owner and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers' and Exporters' Association, alleged that the owner had ignored their warnings about serious cracks and an inspection that confirmed that the building was in imminent danger of collapse. - ©The Daily Telegraph