2/06/2012 02:58:00 AM
LAHORE: A factory building collapsed on Monday in Lahore after a gas explosion, killing at least twelve people and trapping over 30, emergency officials said.
“The factory has completely collapsed and two houses next to it as well,” an emergency official at the site told Reuters by telephone, adding authorities were having trouble getting heavy rescue machinery to the area because of narrow streets.
Rescue workers had managed to rescue people, including two women, from under the rubble.
Karamat Ali, a spokesman for the government Rescue 1122 emergency service, said 17 women and 45 men were at work when the factory, which produced veterinary medical products, crumbled, and the death toll was expected to rise.
Rescue workers and residents were shifting rubble by hand.
An AFP photographer saw women and children being taken out with injuries and covered in dust.
Witnesses said that up to 150 people normally worked at the factory.
The incident is likely to raise fresh questions about Pakistan’s industrial safety. Building and zoning regulations are weak and often not enforced, critics say.
A senior city official said the factory should not have been operating.
“The factory was supposed to be sealed. We will investigate why it was still running,” city official Ahad Cheema told reporters.
It was not clear why it had been ordered sealed.
“My house is near the factory. I felt a strong jolt and my house shook. I thought it was a bombing,” said Awais Raza.
Emergency workers and residents were shifting rubble by hand as authorities struggled to move a large crane to the site to help with the rescue.
“We are looking for voids in the destruction where there are likely to be survivors,” Rizwan Naseer, head of Rescue 1122, told reporters at the site.
Posted in: NATIONAL
