In a miracle, a Bangladeshi woman was today dramatically pulled out from under tonnes of debris, 16 days after the country's worst ever industrial disaster claimed nearly 1,050 lives.
"We have safely retrieved her," Bangladesh Army Lieutenant Colonel Moazzem Hossain told newsmen coming out of the basement of the ruined structure.
The woman, identified as Reshma, is almost unhurt and has been sent to Savar Combined Military Hospital.
The eight-storey Rana Plaza that housed five garment factories collapsed on April 24. The death toll in the disaster crossed the 1,000 mark today with more bodies being retrieved and stands at 1,050.
"The woman signalled us by hitting an iron rod on the rubble as we approached the basement (of the ruined structure)," a fire service official told newsmen.
The garment worker later talked to the rescuers identifying her as Reshma, as she was found alive at the fag end of the salvage campaign, he said.
An army ambulance was kept at the site to rush her to a nearby military hospital for treatment as soon as she was retrieved while the use of cranes and bulldozers was immediately halted fearing that the displaced rubble could harm her, witnesses said.
The military official who retrieved her said after the detection of a "living object", rescuers tried to locate her using torchlight and found her in the basement where the official along with an army major penetrated through a hole.
"I told her, mother don't be afraid, we are here to rescue you... We would you like to drink water," Moazzem said.
The dehydrated woman was immediately given saline water and biscuits as rescuers pulled the frail-looking woman, he said.
The last survivor was rescued on the sixth day after the collapse.
