Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News- 2013-05-12

It was a disaster that gripped the world’s attention. Thousands dead and many more injured when the eight story Rana Plaza building housing five factories in Bangladesh collapsed. Yet below the rubble and amid the rotting corpses, one life clinged onto hope waiting to be rescued…

With the faint cries of "save me, save me" beneath the ruins the woman named Reshma Begum was pulled from the rubble, trapped for nearly three weeks in what may have been a Muslim prayer room.

Wearing a brilliant pink scarf and violet kameez, Begum looked weak but no worse for fear after her ordeal. She told rescue workers that she discovered a supply of dried fruit and bottled water that had run out only two day before her rescue.

Begum was discovered after hitting a metal pole against the rubble to make noise and attract attention. An army sergeant, Abdul Razzaq said, "I heard the sound and rushed towards the spot. I knelt down and heard a faint voice,' sir please help me,' she cried.

Moments after her rescue, Begum managed to muster a smile saying it was good to see the light after so many days. In an interview with Bangladesh Samoy TV from her hospital bed, Begum said that she had struggled underground to communicate with those scrambling above her.

"I heard voices of the rescue workers for the past several days. I kept hitting the wreckage with sticks and rods just to attract their attention. No one heard me. It was so bad for me. I'd never dreamed I'd see the daylight again," said Begum.

Begum was working on the 2nd floor of the building when it began collapsing. She ran into the basement where she was trapped in an air pocket. She told Major General Chawdhury Hassan Suhrawardy the local head of the local military units there were 3 other people with her.

"They died, she did not see anybody else alive there”, added Suhrawardy. He said the bodies of the others were discovered in another section of the building, not far from Begum.