Bangladesh Factory Collapse
Rescue workers carry the remains of a garment worker retrieved from the rubble of the collapsed Rana Plaza building in Savar, 19 miles outside Dhaka, Bangladesh. Reuters

The death toll from the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment-factory building outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, last month has risen to more than 800, about one-quarter of the estimated 3,300 workers on the site that day, according to police reports Wednesday. The official number is now 803.

Also on Wednesday, a Bangladeshi minister announced that 18 other garment factories would be shut down due to safety concerns, AFP reported. "Sixteen factories have been closed down in Dhaka and two in Chittagong," Textile Minister Abdul Latif Siddique told reporters. Chittagong is the second-largest city in Bangladesh and has one of the fastest-growing populations in the world.

Siddique added that there were plans to shut down more plants, and that “ILO [International Labor Organzation] standards" would be “ensured.”

“We have seen that those who claim to be the best compliant factories in Bangladesh have not fully abided by building regulations,” Siddique told AFP.

2,437 people have been rescued from the collapsed building, BBC reported.

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