200 Workers Injured in Bangladesh Earthquake ‘Panic’
More than 200 garment workers are said to have been hurt in Bangladesh on Saturday after evacuating their factory during a moderate earthquake.
The 5.6-magnitude temblor struck the Cumilla District in Chittagong, 100 kilometers southeast of the capital of Dhaka, at 9:35 a.m., according to the Bangladesh Meteorological Department. BDNews24 reported later that day that while the tremors lasted only seconds, they “sparked panic” among the 1,000-plus employees at Amir Shirts in the administrative district of Chauddagram, causing them to swarm the exits of the three-story building and incur injuries in the process.
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“Our multiple teams are working to serve the injured,” Chauddagram medical officer Golam Kibria told the Dhaka Tribune. “It is not possible to tell the exact number of how many people have been admitted so far. The number of injured may increase. But no one was seriously injured.”
“I heard that many people were injured while rushing down due to the earthquake,” added Chauddagram police station officer-in-charge Trinath Saha. “We are trying to get details on this.”
Anwar Hossain, manager at Amir Shirts, told BDNews24 that most of the factory’s workers evacuated safely during the earthquake but that rumors of a potential crack in the building triggered a stampede.
“Someone in the crowd mentioned a crack in the building,” he said. “This instilled panic, and the rush intensified among the women workers. Numerous people were injured in the process.”
Cracks had appeared in the Rana Plaza building in Savar, just outside Dhaka, before its fateful collapse 10 years ago, killing 1,134 garment workers and injuring thousands more. Data from the Open Supply Hub suggests that Amir Shirts is covered by both the International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry and Nirapon, successors to the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh and Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, respectively, which emerged in the aftermath of the watershed disaster.
Before the buyers’ page on Amir Shirts’ website became non-responsive on Tuesday, it listed Walmart, a Nirapon signatory, among its clients. The big-box giant did not respond to a request for comment. Emails to Amir Shirts and the International Accord likewise went unanswered, as did a query to Asda, a previous International Accord signatory that lists the factory among its suppliers. Mango, which also names Amir Shirts on its supplier list and is also a member of the International Accord, said that it hasn’t worked with the facility since June last year. A spokesperson for Nirapon said that it provides safety training for workers on what to do in the event of an earthquake, including staying in the building but moving away from windows and outside walls.
Hossain said that several of the injured workers received treatment at the factory’s health facility, while others were taken by the company’s ambulance to the Chauddagram Upazila Health Complex. Those with more severe injuries were transferred to Cumilla Medical College Hospital, Kibria told BDNews24.
The International Accord announced in November that it will continue for another three-year term, with an automatic renewal of an additional three years. It plans to reveal the signatories of the revised agreement, which includes a potential future expansion of the scope of the worker complaints mechanism beyond health and safety in the Bangladesh- and Pakistan-specific safety programs, among other “key obligations,” early this month.
