Bangladesh building collapse death toll rises to 435 as search continues

April 2 – The death toll from the last week's building collapse in Savar on the outskirts of Bangladesh's capital Dhaka climbed to 435 with recovery of about a dozen more bodies Thursday as rescuers continued their struggle to search for missing persons.

Nine days into the Bangladesh's worst industrial tragedy, rescuers still believed that there might have many more bodies in the wreckage of the collapsed building though they already left the hope of finding people any more alive .

"429 bodies have so far been pulled out of the collapsed building," Major General Chowdhury Hasan Sarwardi, general officer commanding of Bangladesh Army's Nine Infantry Division, told reporters Thursday morning at the disaster site.

He said they are now putting their efforts to pull out manually six more bodies which were spotted Thursday as the rescuers with cranes and other heavy equipment have been removing huge concrete slabs and chunks of debris.

Of the bodies, he said 374 have so far been handed over to their relatives.

Rescuers in collaboration with thousands of volunteers and locals under the supervision of Bangladesh Army's 9th Infantry Division have been working without any break since April 24 morning when the building collapsed.

According to Chowdhury, the rescuers have pulled alive 2,437 people after eight-storey building Rana Plaza crumbled like a pack of cards on April 24 at about 8:30 a.m. local time.

Dhaka (Xinhua)