Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Rescuers pulled out 11 more bodies from the rubbles of the Rana Plaza that came crashing down on several thousand people on April 24.
With the fresh recovery, the death toll of the Savar building collapse reached to 543, said the camp sources of army personnel in Savar. The camp was opened to conduct the rescue operation.
Several bodies were also recovered in the early hours of Saturday, the camp sources added.
“Eleven bodies were recovered from the debris of the building since 6:00am to 11:00am on Saturday,” Brig Gen Ali Ahmed Khan, director general of Fire Service and Civil Defence, told The Daily Star, a local newspaper.
Meanwhile, the rescue operation stepped into 11th straight day on Saturday.
On Friday, 80 bodies were found, the highest found in a single day since the second phase of the rescue operation began on the night of April 28 with heavy equipment and sniffer dogs.
More bodies are thought to be buried under the debris of the eight- storey building and rescuers fear the toll could rise sharply as they go deeper into the pile of rubble.
Rana Plaza, which housed several garment factories, collapsed after owners forced several thousand workers to work there despite cracks had developed on some pillars and floors the day before.
It is still unclear how many workers were there on that fateful day.
The building also had some shops but most of them were closed due to a strike.
Some rescuers said they were pulling out bodies that had been severely decomposed and some were with missing limbs, making it very difficult for relatives to identify them. All bodies were first taken to Adhar Chandra High School playground for identification.
District administration officials said on Friday the decomposed bodies had become hard to identify and there was an incident in which five to six families claimed one body.
The unidentifiable bodies had been sent to morgues at Dhaka Medical College and Mitford Hospital.
The district administration is handing over the bodies that had identity cards or mobile phones. Sometimes it hands over bodies only after getting correct descriptions of the victims from relatives.
BBN/SSR/AD-04May13-12:32 pm (BST)