75-yr-old dug out alive after 4hrs

Rescuers yesterday pulled a 75-year-old woman alive from the rubble four hours into the collapse of a six-storey building that had already killed her son and two others of her family among the 11 dead in Old Dhaka.

Witnesses said locals with bare hands and firemen rescued Modhu Mala Sur limp from the building remains after the predawn collapse in the densely populated neighbourhood of Shankhari Bazar.

"Firemen and I entered the ruined first-floor apartment and found the woman blinking at me. She looked like an idol as dust caked her body," said Arun Sur, who lives a few blocks from the scene that opened surreal images of onlookers gathering, relatives crying and rescuers digging deep all day.

Modhu Mala, now being treated at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) for fractured limbs and bruises, is not aware of her life ahead without her son Kashinath Sur, daughter-in-law Chhobi Kor Sur and grandson Joyanto. Joy, her another grandson, is missing.

"I heard a sound as loud as a thunderbolt and I slid a few inches down. I felt pain in my legs. Masonry came flying down on me," Modhu Mala said of her near-death experience.

Modhu Mala is not alone to live out her future without her loved ones.

Fourteen-year-old Pinky Sur does not know her father Ram Mahi Sur and mother Rani Sur are dead.

"I woke up to a big bang and closed my eyes as a storm of dust covered our room. I cried a few minutes for help. I don't know what happened next," Pinky, a class IX student of Bangla Bazar Girls' High School, told The Daily Star from her hospital bed.

Mithu Kumar Nath, one of four owners of the collapsed building, lost his wife Konika Nag and their daughters Puja and Esha at ages 5 and 2.

ESCAPE FROM DEATH

Chanchala and her family members escaped death, as they used drainpipes of a neighbouring building to climb down.

Chanchala lived on the third floor of the brick and lime building with her husband Gopal Dhar and their sons Antu and Tuhin.

"We ran up to the stairs but found them missing. We moved back and rushed to the rooftop and climbed down using drainpipes of another building," said the woman, still in a daze.