Another body recovered in Old Dhaka building collapse

Rescuers recovered another body from the rubble of partially collapsed two-storey building in Old Dhaka’s Patuatuli area in the wee hours on Thursday.

Firefighters called off the rescue operation 1:00am, early on Thursday, after the recovery of total two bodies, police confirmed media.

The dead bodies were sent to the morgue of Mitford Hospital for autopsy, said Sahidur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Kotwali Police Station.

Officials and locals said the victims are roadside fruit vendor Jayed Ali Bepari, 60, and his son Shafiqul Islam alias Babla Bepari, 16, who lived in the century-old building.

They added that it was unlikely that anyone else was trapped in the building.

Jayed’s brother-in-law Liton Bepari told that the victim's family members had not been able to reach Jayed or Babla over the phone since yesterday morning.

Around 12:30pm, Liton went to Jayed’s rented home and found out that the part of the building where they lived had collapsed.

Firefighters were informed at around 1:20pm and started working to recover the missing people, said Debashis Bardhan, deputy director of Fire Service and Civil Defence in Dhaka.

Seven units of firefighters worked at the building, he said.

After trying to rescue the “missing people” by removing the debris for hours, firefighters said they could see two bodies under tonnes of rubble around midnight.

Several residents of the area said they heard a thudding noise around 2:00am on Wednesday. The building might have collapsed at the time, they added.

Jayed and his son, who are from Madaripur, had been living in the building for the last eight years, Liton said.

Kamruzzaman