Workers pinned in Bangladesh rubble cry for rescue

SAVAR, Bangladesh -- "Save us, brother. I beg you, brother," Mohammad Altab moaned to the rescuers who could not help him. He had been trapped for more than 24 hours, pinned between slabs of concrete in the ruins of the garment factory building where he worked.

"I want to live," he pleaded, his eyes glistening with tears as he spoke of his two young children. "It's so painful here."

Altab should not have been in the building when it collapsed Wednesday, killing at least 275 people.

No one should have.

After seeing deep cracks in the walls of the building on Tuesday, police had ordered it evacuated. But officials at the garment factories operating inside ignored the order and kept more than 2,000 people working, authorities said.

The disaster in Savar, an industrial suburb of Dhaka, the capital city, is the worst ever for Bangladesh's booming and powerful garment industry, surpassing a fire five months ago that killed 112 people and brought widespread pledges to improve the country's worker-safety standards.

Instead, very little has changed in Bangladesh, where wages, among the lowest in the world, have made it a magnet for numerous global brands. Companies operating in the collapsed building say their customers included retail giants such as Wal-Mart, Dress Barn and Britain's Primark.

Hundreds of rescuers, some crawling through the maze of rubble, spent a second day working amid the cries of the trapped and the wails of workers' relatives gathered outside the Rana Plaza building, which housed numerous garment factories.

Rescuers found 40 survivors trapped on the fourth floor. Twelve were soon freed. Crowds burst into applause as survivors emerged.

It was not immediately clear if Mohammad Altab was among those later rescued.