The amazing rescue took place Friday as the death toll from the
disaster raced past 1,000, making it one of the worst industrial
tragedies in history.
The rescuers discovered the woman Friday afternoon in the wreckage of
the basement of the building and ordered the cranes and bulldozers to
immediately stop work.
They used handsaws to cut through the rubble, as hundreds of people who
had been engaged in the grim job of removing decomposing bodies from
the site, raised their hands together in prayer.
“Allah, you are the greatest, you can do anything. Please allow us all
to rescue the survivor just found,” said a man on a loudspeaker leading
the supplicants. “We seek apology for our sins. Please pardon us, pardon
the person found alive.”
When the woman, who soldiers identified as Reshma, was freed after 40 minutes, the crowd erupted in wild cheers.
She was rushed to a military hospital in an ambulance, reportedly in remarkably good shape, despite her ordeal.
Abdur Razzak, a warrant officer with the military’s engineering
department who first spotted her in the wreckage, said she was OK and
could even walk.
Workers at the site began tearing through the nearby wreckage looking for other survivors. - AP
No comments:
Post a Comment