Members of Bangladesh Army with the help of others carry a female survivor off the collapsed building sight in Savar on Thursday. Photo: Anisur Rahman

The death toll from Savar building collapse reached to 243 Thursday as the rescuers continued their frantic effort to save those trapped inside the rubble of the building.

Wali Ashraf Khan, an inspector of Detective Branch of police who has been acting as the in-charge of corpse management control room, confirmed the rise in death toll.

A total of 101 bodies were pulled out of the debris of the sandwiched building till 5:50pm Thursday. During Wednesday’s rescue operation till 2:30am 142 bodies were retrieved.

Of the recovered bodies, 180 have been handed over to the victim’s relatives so far.

In a total of 1500 injured people — trapped inside the debris — were rescued and  admitted to different hospitals till 3:30pm Thursday, Abdul Wazed, director general of the Department of Disaster Management told The Daily Star.

“We do not have the exact account of those injured victims who went to their homes with the help of their relatives,” Wazed said.

All the bodies were recovered from the 3rd, 4th and 5th floors of the building.

Visiting the place around 9:50am, State Minister for LGRD and Cooperatives Jahangir Kabir Nanok asked the authorities concerned to take all necessary steps to rescue the trapped ones.

The country is observing a national mourning day on Thursday in memory of the Savar victims.