Four-storey building crumbles in Bangladesh
At least 20 people were killed Tuesday in Bangladesh when a four-storey building collapsed in the capital Dhaka. The structure, which was built on columns on the edge of a canal, toppled over flattening three flimsy homes.
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The director of the fire brigade, Sheikh Mohammed Shahjalal, has confirmed 20 dead after bodies were pulled from the rubble although that figure could rise. It is believed that a number of people are still missing.
"I thought it was a storm. But I came out and saw that the building had fallen spectacularly from its raised columns and landed on the shanties making a terrible noise," said one resident speaking to local television.
The Brigadier General Sharafat Hossain said the building had recently undergone reconstruction work by adding additional floors. "The building's centre of gravity changed and eventually it broke down," said Hossain.
Most of the victims were part of the neighbourhood’s poor living in the tin-roofed shanties beneath the collapsed building.
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