Summary The collapse had injured more than 103 labourers while killed more than 50
LAHORE (Dunya News) – Police on Saturday have registered a case regarding factory situated in Sundar area that collapsed earlier claiming more than 50 lives.
The case has been registered against owner of the factory, late Muhammad Ashraf while involves terrorism and attempt of murder charges.
The collapse had injured more than 103 labourers. Rescue teams had conducted an extended operation to clear debris and recover bodies. The operation lasted for as many as 131 hours. At least 2079 rescue personnel participated in the operation while light and heavy machinery was used.
At least 309 vehicles were utilized for rubble clearance operation.
The DCO stated that 17,500 tons of wreckage was cleared from the destruction site. Deputy General (DG) Rescue also added that 103 people had been taken out alive from the rubble during the rescue efforts. He also stated that state of the art technology had been used in the rescue efforts to find survivors and clear the wreckage as they wanted to extricate victims from the twisted mangle of steel and concrete as soon as they could.
The unfortunate incident occurred almost a week before when a four-storeyed building of Rajput Polyester polythene bag factory came crashing down with workers still inside in the Sundar Industrial Estate, around 45 kilometres (30 miles) southwest of Lahore s city centre.
Chief Minister (CM) Shahbaz Sharif had said that the October 26 quake might have caused structural damages to the building that resulted in the collapse later on. The massive 8.1 magnitude quake had claimed at least 400 lives.
Pakistan has a poor safety record in the construction and maintenance of buildings.
At least 24 people died last year when a mosque collapsed in the same city, while more than 200 people lost their lives, mostly due to collapsed roofs, following torrential rain and flooding in 2014
