Rescue workers were stunned on Friday
afternoon when a female garment worker was
rescued alive from the rubble 17 days after the
Rana Plaza building collapsed outside
Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Reshma Begum, who identified herself as a
seamstress who worked on the 3rd floor of
Rana Plaza, had been breathing through a pipe
from inside the wreckage, soldiers conducting
the rescue operation said.

Abdur Razzaq, an army sergeant who helped to
rescue Begum, said she had been hitting the
concrete with the pipe and he had heard the
sound after bulldozers had lifted loose rubble
covering the spot.

“I heard the sound and rushed towards the
spot. I knelt down and heard a faint voice. ‘Sir,
please help me,’ she cried,” he said.

Begum told rescuers she was unhurt and had
survived by scavenging for biscuits in the
rucksacks of dead colleagues.
Begum’s body was covered in dust and her hair
was completely white. A woman wailing near
the wreckage said Reshma was her niece.

“We’d only expected to see her body,” she
cried.

As Begum was lifted from the rubble, crowds
ringing the site broke into cheers of “God is
great!” Rescue workers were seen wiping away
tears.

Army officers co-ordinating the rescue
expressed astonishment at finding a survivor in
the rubble at a time when the operation was
winding down.

“It is incredible that someone could have
survived in the wreckage 408 hours after the
building came down,” Lieutenant Shah Jamal
said.

“Her will to live is amazing. We’ve given
her oxygen and she has been rushed to
hospital.”

Army officials said the death toll had reached
1,050 on Friday afternoon.

Source
http://www.ynaija.com/its-a-miracle-how-woman-stayed-alive-for-17-days-under-collapsed-factory-rubble