Rescuers on Tuesday ended their search at the site of a multi-storey factory that collapsed in Pakistan last week after pulling 45 bodies from the rubble, officials said. About 1,000 rescue workers took 131 hours to complete the operation following one of the worst industrial disasters in the country's history, dpa quoted rescue official Jam Sajjad Hussain as saying. Rescuers, mechanical diggers and sniffer dogs have been at work since the collapse in the eastern city of Lahore on November 4, Hussain said. "The rescue mission is over now," he said. "The final death toll is 45." More than 100 labourers were pulled out of the rubble alive during the operation, said Mohamed Usman, chief administrator of Lahore. Usman said the factory suffered structural damage during a 7.5-magnitude earthquake that struck the South Asian region last month, killing 400 people across Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. Children as young as 12 were among the dead, said Arshad Zia, another rescue official.
