Post date: May 10, 2013 7:23:57 PM
A woman who survived for 17 days trapped in the rubble of the collapsed Bangladesh garment factory says that she was able to survive on just two bottles of water.
SAVAR, BANGLADESH (MAY 10, 2013) - A woman who was pulled on Friday (May 10) from the rubble of aBangladesh garment factory 17 days after it collapsed said she survived by rationing two bottles of water.
Hundreds of onlookers burst into cheers as army engineers pulled the woman from the basement of the building after a workman helping to clear the wreckage reported hearing her faint cries of "Save me, save me" from beneath the ruins.Pale, drawn and seemingly unable to walk, the woman, identified by Bangladeshi media only as Reshma, was hoisted out of the rubble on a stretcher, then loaded into an ambulance in scenes broadcast live on television.
"I did not have anything to eat, I only had two bottles of water with me. The last two days I did not even have a drop of water. I got a stick to show them I am alive here. I was hearing someone speaking above me and I was calling but no one could hear me," the woman told a Bangladesh television station from her hospital bed.
Speaking at the hospital Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed her thanks to the rescuers.
"After 17 days the woman was recovered and it's a miracle of God and I express my gratitude to God. And those who day after day could manage to help, the volunteers, I'm grateful to them. I was thinking no rescuers would take the risk of rescuing the others. I was afraid of that. And I'm grateful to God and I'm thankful to the rescuers," said Hasina.
It was not clear if the woman was one of the thousands of garment workers who had been working in the eight-storey building, which collapsed on April 24, a day after its owner assured factory owners and news crews it would stand for "a century".
The woman was found hours after the death toll from the world's worst industrial accident since the 1984 Bhopal disaster in India climbed above 1,000 as rescuers struggled to end the salvage operation.