Rana Plaza was an eight story garment factory. The owner, Mr Sohel Rana, had illegally allowed builders to put another two stories on top of the already 6 story high building. This then made the building top heavy; with the top two stories overhanging the rest of the building. Therefore the building started to develop cracks in the walls that the workers noticed and informed their manager about. The day after the cracks were noticed the building collapsed and killed over 1,100 people.
The workers noticed that there were cracks in the walls of the factory on the 23rd of April; the day before it collapsed. The building was briefly evacuated but the owner said that the building was perfectly stable and that all the workers could go back to work immediatly. All of the workers were reasured that the building was safe, little did they know they would be crushed by it the very next day.
If the manager had got these cracks checked out when they were discovered then the workers wouldn’t have died.
Over 1,100 people were killed and over 2,500 seriously injured. These people were young children, adults and elderly workers. Many families worked together in the factory.
The owner is Mr Sohel Rana, aged 35 and he is said to be known as a ‘thug’ and a ‘gangster’ in the area.
The disaster happened at about 8am on the 24th of April, in 2013, in the Dhaka District in Bangladesh.
RANA PLAZA
1133 People were killed
8 out of 10 victims were women
8 floors of the clothing factory collapsed
2500 people injured