The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) wing of the Pakistan Army had reported previously that engineers as well as urban search and rescue teams have been promptly transferred to partake in the rescue operation in the site of the collapsed building in Lahore.
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Rescue officials said 102 survivors had so far been pulled from the wreckage of the factory, which manufactured polythene shopping bags, 20 kilometres south of the eastern city of Lahore, and collapsed on Wednesday night. At least 26 people were killed.
Rescue workers were digging for survivors and had recovered five injured people so far, said rescue worker Kashif Naveed at the scene.
More than 200 workers were believed to be inside the building on the outskirts of Lahore when it collapsed overnight Wednesday.
“We told the owner to build additional pillars before beginning the fourth floor but he took no notice of it”, one labourer said.
General Officer Commanding (GOC) 10 Division Major General Tariq Aman also visited the collapsed building site to review the rescue operations.
At least 17 people – including children – were killed in a factory collapse following a gas explosion in a residential area of the city in February 2012.
More than 50 people were injured and another 150 are feared to be trapped under debris after the building’s roof caved in. “We can’t find him among the dead or the injured, so I am just hoping that he will be recovered from the rubble safely”, said Mohammad Ramzan, whose 24-year-old son Amin was missing.
The incident comes over a week after a magnitude-7.5 natural disaster hit Pakistan and northern Afghanistan, killing 273 and damaging about 75,000 homes across the country.
The official said the actual number of casualties will be ascertained once the rescue operation is completed.
In 2013, more than 255 workers were killed when a fire tore through a clothing factory in Karachi, one of the deadliest industrial accidents in Pakistani history.
Pakistan has a weak record of enforcing building codes and industrial safety laws.
Some unconfirmed sources indicated that a few under-age workers were employed there as well, according to BBC News.
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By signing up, companies – including H&M, Inditex (owner of Zara), Tommy Hilfiger, Tesco, and Benetton – agreed to enforce and fund in contracted overseas factories the installation of effective fire doors and enclosed stairwells that seal out smoke, to fix structural problems, or to upgrade electrical wiring.
