Pakistan Factory Collapse: Saleha Bibi Pulled From The Rubble After 31 Hours

ISLAMABAD — Rescue workers on Tuesday pulled a 65-year-old woman out alive after she was trapped for 31 hours in the rubble of a collapsed factory in an eastern Pakistan city, as the death toll from the accident rose to 18.

The three-story factory manufactured medicine and collapsed Monday after several gas cylinders inside exploded. It had been set up illegally in a residential area of Lahore and continued operations even though the government tried to shut it down three times, officials said.

Rescue workers on Tuesday heard 65-year-old Saleha Bibi screaming for help, and it took them several hours to pull her out from the jagged pile of concrete blocks, said Rizwan Naseer, head of the state-run rescue service in Punjab province, of which Lahore is the capital.

Bibi said she hid underneath a machine when the roof of the room where she was working started to cave in.

"Allah saved me," she said in an interview with the private Geo TV channel. "I was praying to Allah the whole night."

The woman appeared exhausted but otherwise unharmed as the workers pulled her free, according to local TV footage. She drank from a bottle of water and took a deep breath before being led away from the site.

She was the 15th person to be saved and told the rescuers there were others who were still trapped alive, said Naseer.

Around 30 people are still believed to be under the rubble, said another rescue official, Asad Ahmad. Workers have retrieved 18 dead bodies so far, he said.

Comments

[Sofia Champion]

06:20 PM on 02/07/2012

You must have to be a very humble person to be a paramedic. Every day you go out of your way to save peoples' lives in their darkest hour, and the first person they thank after they're safe is God.

I digress, though. I'm still glad this woman was rescued.

[dpooch]

12:16 PM on 02/07/2012

Regulations we need no stinking regulations...........

[kpamesa]

12:07 PM on 02/07/2012

Another reason to question the sanity of Islam....tons of money to waste on terrorism, NO money to build quality factories, it's ok for women to work in sweatshops, falling-down tenement buildings but not ok for women to be seen in public or seen without full body (including head) coverage. And America is stupid enough to send billions to these idiots thinking they might be "allies".

[Srta TacoMal]

02:41 PM on 02/07/2012

Sanity of Christianity: Spend billions on war, no money for education.

[Sofia Champion]

06:19 PM on 02/07/2012

Many Pakistani Muslim women are not even hijabi, let alone veiled. People in pretty much every poor country are employed in sweatshops. Your assertion that all Muslims want to spend money on terrorism is also pretty stupid.

[psandysdad]

12:00 PM on 02/07/2012

Allah saved her. 'Course He could have prevented the explosion in the first place?

This is the 'God exists due to incomplete destruction' theory.

[ae12wrangell]

11:23 AM on 02/07/2012

Not the first, or last time, something like this has happened.

[kilakhan]

11:14 AM on 02/07/2012

credit to the rescue workers for still searching 31 hours after and to Bibi whose faith no doubt saved her.

[Alethia]

09:04 AM on 02/07/2012

I'm happy this Pakistani woman was saved from the collapse of this factory.

May all the other people trapped be found alive and well.

I'm praying for them...