Bangladesh Building Collapse Death Toll Tops 700 As Protests Rage On

Hundreds of survivors of last month's collapse of a building housing garment factories in Bangladesh protested for compensation Tuesday, as the death toll from the country's worst-ever industrial disaster passed 700.

 The disaster is the worst ever in the garment sector, surpassing the 1911 garment disaster in New York's Triangle Shirtwaist factory, which killed 146 workers, and more recent tragedies such as a 2012 fire that killed about 260 people in Pakistan and one in Bangladesh that killed 112, also in 2012. It is also one of the deadliest industrial accidents ever.

The workers, many who made little more than the national minimum wage of about $38 per month, are demanding at least four months in salary. The workers had set Tuesday as the deadline for the payment of wages and other benefits.

Bangladesh earns nearly $20 billion a year from exports of the garment products, mainly to the United States and Europe.

Officials say the building's owner illegally added three floors to Rana Plaza and allowed the garment factories to install heavy machines and generators.