The Rana Plaza collapse (also referred to as the Savar building collapse) occurred on 24 April 2013 in Savar Upazila, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, when the nine-story Rana Plaza commercial building collapsed due to a structural failure. The search for survivors lasted for 19 days and ended on 13 May 2013, with a confirmed death toll of 1,134. Approximately 2,500 injured people were rescued from the building. It is considered to be one of the deadliest structural failures in modern human history, as well as the deadliest garment-factory disaster in history, and is the deadliest industrial accident in the history of Bangladesh. Amnesty International called it "the most shocking recent example of business-related human rights abuse."
The building housed five garment factories, a bank, and apartments. It was constructed in 2006 on the site of a former pond, and was built without proper permits. The fifth through eighth floors were added onto the building without supporting walls; the heavy equipment from the garment factories was more than the structure could support. On 23 April 2013, large cracks were discovered in the building. The shops and the bank on the lower floors immediately closed, but the garment factory owners on the upper floors ignored the warnings and the workers returned to work the following day. On 24 April, the building collapsed at 9:00 am local time, trapping thousands of people inside.
The court in Bangladesh formally charged 38 people with murder, along with th
Why this event still matters
Historical incidents shape the rules that protect people today — building codes, evacuation policy, warning systems and inspection regimes almost always trace back to a specific disaster. Studying 2013 Savar building collapse alongside current events is how preparedness improves.
See what is happening right now on the live world incident map, browse every building collapses we track on the Building Collapse tracker, or follow live incidents in Bangladesh.