The last survivor of Bangladesh's devastating Primark factory collapse burned to death after rescuers sparked a fire with the very power tools they were using to free her, it has emerged.
The unnamed woman, who had survived for five days since the garment factory caved in last Wednesday in the country's capital Dhaka, had captured the hearts of the millions of Bangladeshis watching the drama unfold on television.
When most had given up hope of finding anyone alive in the rubble, a faint voice was heard echoing from the darkness, triggering a massive rescue effort to free her from the twisted mass of metal and concrete.
But the 11-hour battle to bring her to safety ended in tragedy when sparks from firefighters' cutting machines set light to surrounding debris, pumping acrid smoke into the cavity.
Smell of death: A body is carried out from the garment factory building that collapsed Wednesday
Hunt over: Rescue team digging inside of the building and searching for survivors. So far, 380 have been confirmed dead
As the flames and smoke grew, firefighters were forced to abandon the dig until the fire had been doused.
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Many were seen weeping among the rubble on television as news of her death filtered throughout the rescue operation.
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No hope: Emergency crews have now given up hope of finding any more survivors in the rubble as they began using heavy machinery to remove the rubble and look for bodies
Fading hope: Relatives show pictures of loved ones still not accounted for at the garment factory in the desperate hope some may still be found alive
'The fire broke out as we were cutting a beam to bring out what we believe was the last remaining survivor from the collapsed building. We managed to douse it, but as we came back we saw her dead,' the country’s fire chief Ahmed Ali said.
At least 380 people were killed when the illegally constructed, eight-storey Rana Plaza collapsed in a heap on Wednesday morning along with thousands of workers in the five garment factories in the building. About 2,500 survivors have been accounted for.
Emergency crews have now given up hope of finding any more survivors in the rubble as they began using heavy machinery to remove the rubble and look for bodies, an official said.
The building owner, Mohammed Sohel Rana, was arrested on Sunday in the western border town of Benapole while he was trying to flee to India.
But despite the spectre of death looming over the site, there was one glimmer of hope as a woman miraculously gave birth while trapped beneath the mound of broken concrete and metal.
Police say as many as 900 people are still missing in the aftermath of the collapse. This woman is one of nine survivors who were pulled from the rubble today
Hope: A survivor is carried into an ambulance while surrounded by onlookers, after being rescued from the garment factory building that collapsed Wednesday in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh
The collapse was the deadliest disaster to hit the garment industry in Bangladesh that is worth 20 billion dollars (£12.8 billion) annually, supplies global retailers and is a mainstay of the economy.
Volunteers, army personnel and firemen have worked around the clock since Wednesday, mostly using hands and light equipment to pull out survivors. At around midnight on Sunday, authorities deployed hydraulic cranes and heavy cutting machines to break up the massive slabs of concrete into manageable segments that could be lifted away.
'We are proceeding cautiously. If there is still a soul alive, we will try to rescue that person,' said army spokesman Shahinul Islam.
Property tycoon Sohel Rana was arrested by Bangladesh police today over the collapse of the Primark garment factory
40 survivors were yesterday found trapped in a room that had only partly-collapsed under the weight of crumbled concrete
Blaze: A soldier is evacuated from the fire which broke out this evening at the collapsed garment factory
'There is little hope of finding anyone alive. Our men went inside and saw some dead bodies in the ground floor. But no one was seen alive,' said Brig Gen Ali Ahmed Khan, the chief of the fire brigade at the scene.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina visited the site and a nearby hospital to meet with survivors on Monday, the first time since the disaster.
Hasina had ordered the arrest of building owner Rana, who is a small-time political operative from her Awami League party's youth wing. He was brought back by helicopter from the border town to the capital, Dhaka, where he is expected to be charged with negligence on Monday.
He had permission to build a five-storey building but added three more illegally. He last appeared in public on Tuesday in front of the Rana Plaza after huge cracks appeared in the building.
Witnesses said Rana assured tenants that the building was safe. Police, however, ordered an evacuation. A bank and some first-floor shops closed, but managers of the garment factories on the upper floors told workers to continue their shifts.
Hampered: Rescue workers react to the fire among the rubble, where the search for survivors was disrupted
Partial halt: A rescue worker is given oxygen as he is evacuated from the fire at the collapsed building
Survivor: A man was pulled from the building earlier today - the fifth day since the devastating collapse
People gather on the site of the ruined factory as rescuers try to bring survivors out of the rubble. The death count is growing
Hours later, the Rana Plaza was reduced to rubble, crushing most victims under massive blocks of concrete.
Police have also arrested four owners of three factories. Also in detention for questioning are two municipal engineers who were involved in approving the building's design. Local TV stations reported that the Bangladesh High Court has frozen the bank accounts of the owners of all five garment factories.
Also under detention are the wife of the building owner who is on the run and two government engineers who were involved in giving approval for the building design.
Grim task: Bangladeshi rescue workers carry the body of a dead garment worker retrieved in the rubble
The search for life is becoming more pressured as resuce workers enter their fifth day of picking through crumbled steel and concrete
Tragedy: Rescuers carrying out a dead body from the rubble this evening, almost 92 hours after the collapse
The owner had the approval to construct five floors but he added three more illegally.
A huge crack appeared in the building, Rana Plaza, on Tuesday, but the owner, Mohammed Sohel Rana, assured tenants it was safe to go inside.
A bank and some shops on the first floor shut their premises on Wednesday after police ordered an evacuation, but managers of the garment factories on the upper floor told workers to continue their shifts.
Hours later the Rana Plaza was reduced to rubble, and most victims were crushed by massive blocks of concrete and mortar falling on them.
Working round-the-clock, rescuers have used bare hands and shovels, passing chunks of brick and concrete down a human chain away from the collapsed structure.
On the ground, mixed in the debris were several pairs of pink cotton pants, a mud-covered navy blue sock and a pile of green uncut fabric.
Another survivor is pulled from the rubble of collapsed Primark...
Owners of the collapsed Rana Plaza garment factory are led away by police. Police have made a total of six arrests including engineers who designed the building
Two arrested owners of the garment factory that collapsed outside the capital, are today escorted to an appearance at the court in Dhaka
Some people have survived five days in the wreckage with no food or water but 900 are counted as missing
Soldiers clear away the crumbled concrete of the Rana Plaza building. Fears are mounting that the death toll could rise far beyond the latest figure of 363
The badly decomposed bodies pulled out of the rubble were kept at a makeshift morgue at the nearby Adharchandra High School before being handed over to families.
A garment manufacturers' group said the factories in the building employed 3,122 workers, but it was not clear how many were inside when it fell. About 2,500 survivors have been accounted for.
The death toll surpassed a fire five months ago that killed 112 people and brought widespread pledges to improve worker-safety standards. But since then, very little has changed in Bangladesh.
The collapse and previous disasters in garment factories have focused attention on the poor working conditions of workers who toil for as little as 38 dollars (£24) a month to produce clothing for top international brands.
Its garment industry was the third-largest in the world in 2011, after China and Italy, having grown rapidly in the past decade.
People gather to watch the rescue operation, hoping their loved ones will be discovered alive five days after Bangladesh's worst ever industrial accident
Protestors light fires in the streets as rescue workers continue to search the rubble for survivors and bodies
Among the garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac, Ether Tex, New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms. Altogether, they produced several million shirts, trousers and other garments a year.
The New Wave companies, according to their website, make clothing for several major North American and European retailers.
Britain's Primark acknowledged it was using a factory in Rana Plaza, but many other retailers distanced themselves from the disaster, saying they were not involved with the factories at the time of the collapse or had not recently ordered garments from them.
Wal-Mart said none of its clothing had been authorised to be made in the facility, but it is investigating whether there was any unauthorised production.