Bangladesh factory deaths hit 761

DHAKA, Bangladesh – The death toll from a collapsed building housing five garment factories rose to 761 today as authorities started disbursing salary and other benefits to the survivors in the country’s deadliest industrial disaster.

According to a control room at the scene, rescue workers recovered more bodies out of the wreckage of the eight-story Rana Plaza that was packed with morning-shift workers when it collapsed on April 24 outside the nation’s capital.

There is no clear indication on how many bodies still remain trapped in the debris as the exact number of people inside the collapsed building at the time of the collapse was unknown. More than 2,500 people were rescued.

The disaster is the worst ever in the garment sector, far surpassing a fire that killed about 260 people in Pakistan and another in Bangladesh that killed 112 last year, as well as the 1911 garment disaster in New York’s Triangle Shirtwaist factory that killed 146 workers.

After hundreds of garment factory workers protested for compensation on Tuesday morning, authorities started disbursing salary and other benefits.

Maj. Gen. Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy, a top military official in the area, said some 400 workers gathered on Tuesday night to get dues and benefits.