Collapsed Factory Was Built Without Permit
The factory complex that collapsed this week in this country's deadliest industrial accident was built without proper permission on unstable land, Dhaka city officials said, as the official death toll climbed to 275 and rescue workers continued to pull survivors from the rubble.
Rescuers digging with drills, shovels and their bare hands said many dead bodies were believed to still be under the wreckage of Rana Plaza, the eight-story building that collapsed Wednesday. Relatives of the missing, handkerchiefs to their faces to block out the smell, searched rows of corpses laid out in a nearby school.
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The owner of Rana Plaza, local politician Sohel Rana, didn't obtain mandatory permits from the municipal agency that oversees building safety in the greater Dhaka area, said Sheikh Abdul Mannan, a senior official with the agency. The building, in Savar, a commercial hub just north of Dhaka, "did not receive planning permission," Mr. Mannan said. "It could and should have been demolished."
Mr. Rana instead obtained permission from Savar's mayor to build the commercial complex, which housed five textile factories, a bank and shops. Mr. Mannan said the mayor had no authority to allow the construction.
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