• Woman who survived 16 days in collapsed building: 'Never dreamed I'd see the daylight'

    As workers began the grim process of recovering the dead, they heard a faint cry from the rubble.  Seamstress Reshma Begum spent more than 16 days trapped in a basement mosque, subsisting on dried foods and small amounts of water. NBC's Ian Williams reports.

    By Ian Johnston and Sohel Uddin, NBC News

    A mother who was pulled alive from the ruins of an eight-story factory in Bangladesh admitted Friday that she "never dreamed I'd see the daylight again" after more than 16 days in the rubble.

    Reshma Begum, a seamstress who is married with a young son, was found trapped in a mosque in the building's basement after about 391 hours.

    AFP - Getty Images

    A woman who survived more than 16 days in the rubble of a collapsed factory building in Bangladesh was rescued on Friday.

    "I heard voices of the rescue workers for the past several days," Begum told private Somoy TV station from her hospital bed. "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 never dreamed I'd see the daylight again."

    She added: "There was some dried food around me. I ate the dried food for 15 days. The last two days I had nothing but water. I used to drink only a limited quantity of water to save it. I had some bottles of water around me." 

    The April 24 collapse of the Rana Plaza complex, about 20 miles northwest of Dhaka, was the world's worst industrial accident since the Bhopal disaster in India in 1984, Reuters reported. The death toll reached at least 1,038 on Friday.

    One expert rescuer said he had never heard of someone surviving for so long in a collapsed building, saying it was "incredible" Begum was still alive.

    Bangladesh’s Daily Star newspaper said the first sign there was a survivor came when a rescuer heard groans coming from the basement at about 3:15 p.m. local time on Friday (5:15 a.m. ET). 

    A senior rescue official said Begum was first spotted by a 15-year-old volunteer helping at the site called Monowar. 

    Munir Uz Zaman / AFP - Getty Images

    The factory building -- once eight-stories high -- is now almost at ground level.

    Bangladesh’s Independent newspaper quoted a rescuer who told local television that "as we were clearing rubble, we called out if anyone was alive."

    "Then we heard her saying, 'please save me, please save me.' Since then she has been talking to us," he added.

    She was given water and food as rescuers tried to reach her, the Star newspaper said, and she was freed just over an hour later.

    Local television showed the young woman, who was wearing a purple dress, being carried from the rubble to an ambulance that took her to a military hospital.

    The rescue official said she was dehydrated but able to walk, and Moazzem Hossain, an army major, also told the Star that she was in "good health." 

    Ray Gray, who spent 22 years as a rescuer at many of the world’s major earthquakes, said it was “incredible” that she was still alive after more than 16 days.

    “She’s a very, very lucky lady,” he said. “It’s certainly the longest I’ve heard of.”

    Gray, who recently retired from working with the Scotland-based International Rescue Corps, said without access to water most people would be dead within a week.

    He said the longest rescue he was involved in personally was of a woman in the city of Duzce, Turkey, who was trapped for four or five days after an earthquake in 1999. A closet fell on top of her and protected her from her house, which collapsed in the quake. She survived despite having no water or food.

    The disaster, believed to have been triggered when generators were started up during a blackout, has put the spotlight on Western retailers who use the impoverished South Asian nation as a source of cheap goods.

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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    This story was originally published on Fri May 10, 2013 6:42 AM EDT

  • Owner of collapsed Bangladesh building faces murder complaint as death toll rises

    Reuters file

    Members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) present Mohammed Sohel Rana to the media after his arrest in Jessore, in Dhaka, in this file picture taken April 28, 2013.

    By Serajul Quadir and Ruma Paul, Reuters

    DHAKA, Bangladesh — The wife of garment worker killed when a building in Bangladesh collapsed last month filed a murder complaint against the owner of the building Sunday as the death toll from the enormous industrial disaster climbed above 600.

    Murder complaints were also filed against the owner of one of the garment factories inside the building and a municipal engineer in the suburb of the capital, Dhaka, where the factory was located.

    The owner of the Rana Plaza building, Mohammed Sohel Rana, was arrested after a four-day manhunt as he appeared to be trying to flee across the border to India. He is one of nine people being held in connection with the April 24 building collapse, which has now claimed 622 lives. 

    Rana and the others in police custody could face the death penalty if they are found guilty of murder or mass manslaughter.

    Hundreds of relatives gathered at the site of the disaster on Sunday, some holding up photographs of family members. A teenage girl broke down in tears when she recognized the body of her mother by her dress, after she was brought from the ruins.

    In all, 53 bodies were recovered Sunday and rescue workers said they could see more trapped in the rubble. The smell of decomposing bodies hung in the air.

    Authorities have found it increasingly difficult to identify bodies and are using ID cards found on them or even their mobile phones to help in the process.


    Rana appeared in court last week dressed in a helmet and bullet-proof jacket, in front of a crowd of protesters demanding he be hanged. He is a local leader of the ruling Awami League's youth front.

    The woman who lodged the murder case against Rana said her husband had been forced to go to work in his factory in the building despite huge cracks appearing in the walls a day before it collapsed, a lawyer said.

    "If they are found guilty of these killings they will get the highest punishment - capital punishment," said Abdul Huq, a lawyer working at the court where the cases were lodged.

    The government has blamed the owners and builders of the eight-story complex for using shoddy building materials, including substandard rods, bricks and cement, and not obtaining the necessary clearances.

    The poor construction meant the building was unable to support the generators running inside, the Export Promotion Bureau, a wing of the Commerce Ministry, said in a report.

    The bureau has recommended paying compensation to the victims' families and inspecting the safety of other factories, a senior official with knowledge of the report told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

    The disaster, believed to have been triggered when the generators were started up during a blackout, put the spotlight on Western retailers who use the impoverished South Asian nation as a source of cheap goods.

    About 4 million people work in Bangladesh's garment industry, making it the world's second-largest apparel exporter after China. Some earn as little as $38 a month, conditions Pope Francis has compared to "slave labor."

    Mohammad Atiqul Islam, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, told Reuters the Pope did not know the full picture and his group would send a letter to the Vatican describing conditions in Bangladeshi factories.

     

     

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • EU considers trade action after Bangladesh factory collapse

    Khurshed Rinku / Khurshed Rinku / Reuters

    A view of rescue workers attempting to find survivors from the rubble of the collapsed Rana Plaza building on April 30.

    By Susan Taylor, Neha Alawadhi, Serajul Quadir and Rema Paul, Reuters

    The European Union voiced strong concern over labor conditions in Bangladesh after a building collapse there killed hundreds of factory workers, and said it was considering action to encourage improvements, including the use of its trade preference system.

    Anger has been growing since the illegally built structure collapsed last week, killing at least 390 people. Hundreds remain unaccounted for but rescue officials said on Tuesday they had given up hope of finding any more survivors.

    It was the third deadly incident in six months to raise questions about worker safety and labor conditions in the poor South Asian country, which relies on garments for 80 percent of its exports.

    Representatives of major international garment buyers - some facing sharp criticism in home markets for doing too little to safeguard the mostly female workers making their clothes - met industry representatives in Dhaka on Monday and agreed to form a joint panel to put together a new safety plan.

    Clothes made in five factories inside the Rana Plaza building on the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka, were produced for retailers in Europe and Canada.

    Late on Tuesday, the EU issued a brief statement expressing concern and suggested it would look at Bangladesh's preferential trade access to the EU market in considering taking action to encourage better safety standards and labor conditions.


    "The EU is presently considering appropriate action, including through the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) - through which Bangladesh currently receives duty-free and quota-free access to the EU market under the ‘Everything But Arms' scheme - in order to incentivize responsible management of supply chains involving developing countries," said the statement, issued by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht.

    About 3.6 million people work in Bangladesh's garment industry, making it the world's second-largest apparel exporter. The bulk of exports - 60 percent - go to Europe.

    Ashton and de Gucht said they were deeply saddened by the "terrible loss of life", particularly because it followed a fire in the Tazreen Fashion factory in a Dhaka suburb in November that killed 112 people.

    The sheer scale of this disaster and the alleged criminality around the building's construction is finally becoming clear to the world," Ashton and de Gucht said.

    Also on Tuesday, following a private emergency meeting of Canadian retailers, the Retail Council of Canada said it would develop a new set of guidelines.

    That emergency meeting brought together retailers including Loblaw, Sears Canada Inc and Wal-Mart Canada, to discuss how they would deal with the tragedy.

    Representatives of some 45 companies, including Gap Inc, H&M, J.C. Penney, Nike Inc, Wal-Mart, Britain's Primark, Marks & Spencer and Tesco, and Li & Fung, also met officials from the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association in Dhaka on Monday to discuss safety.

    The Retail Council of Canada, which represents operators of more than 43,000 stores in Canada, said it would work with international organizations, the Bangladeshi government and others to find ways to address safety in the Bangladesh garment industry.

    Primark and Loblaw have promised to compensate the families of garment workers killed while making their clothes.

    AGONISING WAIT

     With no hope left of finding survivors, heavy machinery is being used to clear concrete and debris from the site in the commercial suburb of Savar, about 20 miles from Dhaka.

    It was still an agonizingly slow process for families waiting for news on loved ones who worked in the Rana Plaza, which collapsed with about 3,000 people inside. About 2,500 people have been rescued so far, many of them injured.

    With angry protests continuing daily since Bangladesh's worst industrial accident, the building's owner was brought before a court in Dhaka on Monday, where lawyers and protesters chanted "hang him, hang him."

    About 20 people were injured on Tuesday as police fired teargas, rubber bullets and water cannon to disperse protesters in Savar calling for the death penalty for the owners of the building and factories.

    Officials in Bangladesh have said the eight-story complex had been built on swampy ground without the correct permits, and more than 3,000 workers entered the building last Wednesday despite warnings it was structurally unsafe.

    Eight people have been arrested - four factory bosses, two engineers, building owner Mohammed Sohel Rana and his father, Abdul Khalek. Police are looking for a fifth factory boss, Spanish citizen David Mayor, although it was unclear whether he was in Bangladesh at the time of the accident.

    The garment industry employs mostly women, some of whom earn as little as $38 a month.

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Western firms to pay compensation over Bangladesh factory collapse

    Bangladesh factory owner Mohammed Rana is taken to jail as one of eight people being held responsible for the deaths of nearly 400 people when the building collapsed. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown.

    By Ruma Paul and Serajul Quadir, Reuters

    DHAKA, Bangladesh -- Two Western retailers have promised to compensate families of garment workers killed while making their clothes in a Bangladesh factory building that collapsed last week in the country's worst industrial accident.

    The pledge from Britain's Primark and Canada's Loblaw came after the owner of the collapsed Rana Plaza was brought before a court in the capital, Dhaka, on Monday, where lawyers and protesters chanted "hang him, hang him."

    At least 385 people were killed in the disaster, the latest incident to raise serious questions about worker safety and low wages in the poor South Asian country that relies on garments for 80 percent of its exports.

    With almost no hope left of finding further survivors, heavy machinery has been brought in to start clearing the mass of concrete and debris from the site in the commercial suburb of Savar, about 20 miles from Dhaka.

    Eight people have been arrested: four factory bosses, two engineers, building owner Mohammed Sohel Rana, and his father, Abdul Khalek.

    Police are looking for a fifth factory boss, Spanish citizen David Mayor, although it was unclear whether he was in Bangladesh at the time of the accident.

    The collapse of an illegally constructed factory four days ago in Bangladesh, the world's second largest producer of clothing, is responsible for the deaths of at least 400 people, while up to 900 could still be trapped inside. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

    There were angry scenes as Rana, a local leader of the ruling Awami League's youth front, was led into court on Monday wearing a helmet and protective police jacket, witnesses said.

    "Put the killer on the gallows. He is not worth any mercy or lenient penalty," one onlooker outside the court shouted.

    Rana, who was arrested on Sunday by the elite Rapid Action Battalion while apparently trying to flee to India, was ordered to be held on remand for 15 days for interrogation.

    Khalek, who officials said was named in documents as a legal owner of the Rana Plaza building, was arrested in Dhaka on Monday. Those being held face charges of faulty construction and causing unlawful death.

    About 2,500 people have been rescued from the wrecked building, which housed several factories on the upper floors, but hundreds of the mostly female workers who are thought to have been inside remain unaccounted for.

    Primark, which was supplied by one of the factories operating at Rana Plaza, said on Monday that it was working with a local nongovernmental organization to help victims of the disaster.

    "Primark will pay compensation to the victims of this disaster who worked for its supplier," said the company, owned by Associated British Foods. "This will include the provision of long-term aid for children who have lost parents, financial aid for those injured and payments to the families of the deceased."

    Loblaw Companies Ltd., which had some of its Joe Fresh clothing line manufactured at Rana Plaza, said it too was offering compensation.

    The owner of a building that collapsed killing hundreds has been arrested in Bangladesh. As many as 900 people remain missing in the ruins of the building in Dhaka. Rescuers are still pulling people alive from the rubble, but the pace has slowed, and the number of dead seems certain to rise from the current count of 360. ITN Piers Hopkirk reports.

    "We are working to ensure that we will deliver support in the best and most meaningful way possible, and with the goal of ensuring that victims and their families receive benefits now and in the future," said spokeswoman Julija Hunter in an email.

    The International Labor Organization, an agency of the United Nations, said it was sending a high-level mission to Bangladesh in the coming days.

    "Horror and regret must translate into firm action," said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder in a statement. "Action now can prevent further tragedy." 

    Related:

    Rescue workers give up search for survivors of Bangladesh collapse

    PhotoBlog: The search for survivors

    Rescues made after collapse

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Building collapses in northern France, two dead

    Francois Nascimbeni / AFP - Getty Images

    Firemen are at work near the collapsed section of an apartment building on April 28, 2013 in Reims, France.

    By Sybille de La Hamaide and Yann Le Guernigou, Reuters

    PARIS — Part of a five-storey residential building collapsed in the center of the northeastern French city of Reims on Sunday, killing two people and injuring at least 10, officials said.

    The collapse, which left several apartments dangling in open air, may have been caused by a gas explosion and investigations were continuing, regional official Michel Bernard told BFM-TV.

    The casualty toll was provisional and could rise, he said. Around 10 of the 40 apartments in the 1960s-era building were affected by the 11.15 a.m. (5:15 a.m. EDT) collapse. "There is a lot of rubble to clear," he said.

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Four arrested as death toll climbs to 341 in Bangladesh factory collapse

    Rescuers, refusing to give up hope, scour the rubble for survivors in the aftermath of one of the country's worst industrial disasters. NBC's Ian Williams reports.

    By Serajul Quadir and Ruma Paul, Reuters

    DHAKA, Bangladesh -- Two factory bosses and two engineers were arrested in Bangladesh on Saturday, three days after the collapse of a building where low-cost garments were made for Western brands, as the death toll rose to 341 but many were still being found alive.

    As many as 900 people could still be missing, police said.

    The owner of the eight-story building that fell like a pack of cards around more than 3,000 workers was still on the run.

    Police said several of his relatives were detained to compel him to hand himself in, and an alert had gone out to airport and border authorities to prevent him from fleeing the country.

    Officials said Rana Plaza, on the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka, had been built without the correct permits, and the workers were allowed in on Wednesday despite warnings the previous day that it was structurally unsafe.

    Two engineers involved in building the complex were also arrested at their homes early on Saturday, Dhaka district police chief Habibur Rahman said. He said they were arrested for dismissing a warning not to open the building after a jolt was felt and cracks were noticed on some pillars the previous day.

    While protesters have taken to the streets of Dhaka, distraught family members have gathered at the sight of the collapsed building looking for information about missing loved ones.  ITV's Paul Davies reports.

    The owner and managing director of the largest of the five factories in the complex, New Wave Style, surrendered to the country's garment industry association during the night and they were handed over to police.

    The factory, which listed many European and North American retailers as its customers, occupied upper floors of the building that officials said had been added illegally.

    'People are asking for his head'
    "Everyone involved -- including the designer, engineer and builders -- will be arrested for putting up this defective building," said junior internal affairs minister Shamsul Huq.

    An alliance of leftist parties which is part of the ruling coalition said it would call a national strike on May 2 if all those responsible for the disaster were not arrested by Sunday.

    Rahman identified the owner of the building as Mohammed Sohel Rana, a leader of the ruling Awami League's youth front.

    "People are asking for his head, which is quite natural," said H.T. Imam, an adviser to the prime minister.

    Wednesday's collapse was the third major industrial incident in five months in Bangladesh, the second-largest exporter of garments in the world. In November, a fire at the Tazreen Fashion factory nearby the latest disaster killed 112 people.

    Such incidents have raised serious questions about worker safety and low wages, and could taint the reputation of the poor South Asian country, which relies on garments for 80 percent of its exports.

    Anger over the working conditions of Bangladesh's 3.6 million garment workers -- most of whom are women -- has grown since the disaster, triggering protests.

    Hundreds were on the streets again on Saturday, smashing and burning cars and sparking more battles with police, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. Eyewitnesses said dozens of people were injured in the latest clashes.

    Remarkably, people were still being pulled alive from the precarious mound of rubble -- 21 in all since dawn on Saturday.

    "We must salute the common people who dared to enter the wreckage to rescue them, as even our professionals didn't dare to take the risk," Mizanur Rahman, deputy director of the fire service, told Reuters.

    Marina Begum, 22, spoke from a hospital bed of her ordeal inside the broken building for three days.

    "It felt like I was in hell," she told reporters. "It was so hot, I could hardly breathe, there was no food and water. When I regained my senses I found myself in this hospital bed."

    Frantic efforts were under way to save 15 people trapped under the concrete who were being supplied with dried food, bottled water and oxygen.

    About 2,500 people have been rescued from the remains of the building in the commercial suburb of Savar, about 20 miles from Dhaka.

    Wrong permit, illegal floors
    Emdadul Islam, chief engineer of the state-run Capital Development Authority (CDA), said the owner of the building had not received the proper building consent, obtaining a permit for a five-story building from the local municipality, which did not have the authority to grant it.

    "Only CDA can give such approval," he said. "We are trying to get the original design from the municipality, but since the concerned official is in hiding we cannot get it readily."

    Furthermore, another three storeys had been added illegally, he said. "Savar is not an industrial zone, and for that reason no factory can be housed in Rana Plaza," Islam told Reuters.

    Islam said the building had been erected on the site of a pond filled in with sand and earth, which meant its foundations were too weak.

    "There were three big and very heavy generators that shook the whole building when they were operating. On that day the generators were being used and within seconds the building collapsed," Islam said.

    Sixty percent of Bangladesh's garment exports go to Europe. The United States takes 23 percent and Canada takes 5 percent.

    North American and European chains, including British retailer Primark and Canada's Loblaw, a unit of George Weston Ltd, said they were supplied by factories in the Rana Plaza building.

    Loblaw, which had a small number of "Joe Fresh" apparel items made at one of the factories, said on Saturday that it was working with other retailers to provide aid and support.

    It said it was sending representatives to Bangladesh and was also joining what it described as an urgent meeting with other retailers and the Retail Council of Canada.

    Related stories:

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Dozens killed after building collapses near Mumbai

    Dozens of people are dead after a building collapsed in Mumbai, India, with many more missing in the rubble. The building was under construction when it collapsed. Families had moved into the unfinished structure.

    Rafiq Maqbool / AP

    Rescue workers look for trapped people after a residential building collapsed in Thane, Mumbai, India, Thursday, April 4, 2013.

    By Reuters

    At least 39 people were killed and dozens injured after an illegal, half-constructed building collapsed in seconds "like a pack of cards" on the outskirts of India's financial centre Mumbai, officials and witnesses said.

    Rescue workers using cranes and bulldozers searched for survivors in the wreck of steel and concrete on Friday after the seven-storey building crumbled on Thursday night. Residents said laborers paying rent of around $5 a day had lived in it.

    "The building collapsed like a pack of cards within three to four seconds," said Ramlal, a local resident. "It just tilted a bit and collapsed," he said. Read the full story.

    Danish Siddiqui / Reuters

    Rescue workers carry a woman who survived from the collapsed building.

    Vivek Prakash / Reuters

    Rescue workers search for survivors at the site of the collapsed building.

    Danish Siddiqui / Reuters

    Rescue workers carry a child who survived the collapse of a residential building in Thane.

    Divyakant Solanki / EPA

    Rescue work continued at the site of the building collapse on April 5, 2013.

    AP

    Rescue workers carry a young child who survived the building collapse on Friday, April 5, 2013.

     

    This story was originally published on Thu Apr 4, 2013 5:39 PM EDT

  • Giant crane bursts into flames, collapses on building in Australia

    TODAY's Natalie Morales takes a look at video showing the biggest crane in Sydney, Australia, engulfed in flames then crashing down onto a nearby building. Thankfully, nobody was injured in the ordeal.

    By Ian Johnston, NBC News

    A 210-foot crane burst into flames and its arm then crashed onto a university building in Australia Tuesday as people fled.

    Video footage showed flames engulfing the engine and cabin of the crane.


    It was the second crane collapse involving multinational construction company Lend Lease. It currently is being sued by two dentists over the collapse of a crane on a 90-story luxury apartment building in New York City during superstorm Sandy.

    The University of Technology Sydney said in a statement that the crane caught fire shortly before 10 a.m. local time (10 p.m. ET).

    The university said no one was hurt with students and staff evacuating buildings in the affected areas. It added it was working with Lend Lease and the authorities "to assess the safety of the site and surrounding area."

    Fire crews quickly withdrawn
    Fire & Rescue NSW said in a statement that "a crane driver and a second worker in the cabin evacuated soon after firefighters arrived as the fire spread from the engine to engulf the cabin."

    Fire crews were "quickly withdrawn when the fire started to destabilize the crane’s structural integrity and its fly boom [the crane arm] collapsed," the statement said.

    About 200 people were evacuated from the area and a 0.6-mile exclusion zone was set up.

    On Oct. 29, during superstorm Sandy, a crane operated by Lend Lease collapsed on the One57 building, which includes a number of expensive apartments and a number of businesses.

    Earlier this month, Reuters reported that two dentists with offices near the building had filed a lawsuit against Lend Lease and other companies involved, saying they had been forced to close as the area was evacuated.

    Police have evacuated the upper floors of buildings near a luxury high-rise on West 57th St. in New York City as damaged crane dangled precariously from what is slated to be Manhattan's tallest residential tower. NBC's Rehema Ellis reports.

    Crane left dangling from partly built Manhattan tower

    The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, said Lend Lease was negligent because it failed to make sure the crane was properly secured before the storm.

    "The crane collapse and the ensuing week-long evacuation was a direct result of defendants' failure to prepare, maintain, operate, and secure the crane to withstand the winds of the widely anticipated Hurricane Sandy," the lawsuit said.

    There was no response to calls placed with Lend Lease offices in London, U.K., and New York Tuesday.

    The British trade magazine Building’s website (requires registration) quoted a Lend Lease spokesperson as saying the crane collapses in Sydney and New York were “completely unrelated.”

    "No one has been injured as a result of the incident," the spokesperson said, referring to the Sydney collapse. "Lend Lease is working closely with emergency services and relevant authorities to manage the incident."

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • 'Cancelled and annulled': Disgraced UK banker stripped of his knighthood

    Ben Stansall / AFP - Getty Images file

    Fred Goodwin arrives at Downing Street in London for a meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Goodwin who was knighted in 2004 for services to banking has had his Knighthood cancelled and annulled.

    By msnbc.com staff and news services.

    LONDON - Britain took the rare step of stripping former Royal Bank of Scotland chief Fred Goodwin of his knighthood, following intense criticism of his role in RBS' near-collapse during the 2008 credit crisis, and public anger towards wealthy bankers.

    "The failure of RBS played an important role in the financial crisis of 2008-9 which, together with other macroeconomic factors, triggered the worst recession in the U.K. since the Second World War and imposed significant direct costs on British taxpayers and businesses," the government said in a statement.

    "Fred Goodwin was the dominant decision maker at RBS at the time," the statement added. "In reaching this decision, it was recognised that widespread concern about Fred Goodwin's decisions meant that the retention of a Knighthood for 'services to banking' could not be sustained."

    Goodwin was awarded the knighthood in 2004 but resigned in October 2008 as the bank was failing, provoking the public's fury by leaving with 16 million pounds ($25 million) in pension benefits. Billions in taxpayer funds were used to bailout the stricken bank. 

    The government said it would soon be announced that Goodwin's knighthood had been "cancelled and annulled." 

    The Scottish banker spearheaded RBS' disastrous acquisition of Dutch bank ABN AMRO, which nearly caused the collapse of RBS during the 2008 crisis.

    RBS ended up having to be propped up with 45 billion pounds ($71 billion) of taxpayers' money, with the government finishing up with an 83 percent stake in the bank.

    Goodwin told a committee at the House of Commons that he "could not be more sorry" for what had happened at RBS, BBC reported.

    It is very rare for Britain to remove people of their knighthoods, and Goodwin joins the ranks of figures such as former Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu who forfeited an honorary knighthood.

    The woes of RBS have come to symbolize for many in Britain more serious problems with the country's banking industry.

    Many are still angry at the fact that bankers are continuing to get paid millions while elsewhere thousands lose their jobs as the economy weakens.

    On Sunday, the current chief executive of RBS - Stephen Hester - was forced to decline a million pound share bonus after the award had been attacked by all major British political parties.

    Reuters, The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

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