Efforts to reach survivors in Dhaka building collapse

Rescuers are frantically trying to save about nine people located in the wreckage of a collapsed building in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka.

Reports from the scene say it is a race against time before officials bring in heavy machinery, and that the smell of decomposing bodies of the casualties in the wreck is making some rescuers ill.

More than 350 people have died since Wednesday's disaster and hundreds more are missing.

On Sunday, one more person was pulled alive from the rubble of the eight-storey building in the suburb of Savar as the rescue operation entered its fifth day.

A group of about nine survivors was also located and teams were using light cutting equipment to try to reach them. Water and food are being dropped through gaps in the rubble.

But with hopes fading for those still trapped, officials plan to bring in cranes within the next few hours.

The army officer coordinating the rescue, Maj Gen Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy, has been reported as saying that they would try to save the nine people first by using light equipment. "But if we fail we will start our next phase within hours."

This would involve heavy equipment including hydraulic cranes and cutters to bore a hole from the top of the collapsed building, he told reporters.

He said they still aimed to recover survivors as well as bodies.

"In this stage, we have no other choice but to use some heavy equipment. We will start it within a few hours. Manual operation and use of small equipment is not enough."

Twenty-nine people were rescued on Saturday and two engineers were arrested, but the building's owner is still missing.

The engineers were alleged to have approved the building's safety a day before it came down.

Police said they had ordered an evacuation of the building on Tuesday after cracks appeared in the structure on Tuesday, but that the factories ignored them and were operating the next day.

The owners of three of the five clothing factories inside were also detained after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina promised that those responsible would be hunted down.

They face preliminary charges of causing death by negligence.

However, the overall owner of the complex, Sohel Rana, reportedly a leader of the youth wing of the ruling Awami League, is in hiding and has so far avoided arrest. Police have detained Rana's wife in an effort to persuade him to hand himself in.

One minister has alleged that Rana Plaza was built without permits.

Thousands of relatives of missing workers gathered at the site to watch as survivors and the dead were pulled from the rubble on Saturday.

Police said that 353 bodies had so far been found, 301 of which had been identified. A further 2,431 people are known to have survived.

There is no official figure on the number of people still missing, but Akram Hossain, a deputy director of the fire service, said their chances of survival were "diminishing by the minute".

The fire service's head of operations, Mahbubur Rahman, said the rescue effort was becoming increasingly difficult for emergency workers as survivors were losing their strength to call for help.