JEDDAH, 3 November — An expatriate worker was killed and 12 others were injured when a building under construction collapsed in Alkhamra, south of Jeddah, on Thursday.
Witnesses told Arab News that two construction workers were rushed to the emergency ward of the Soliman Faqeeh Hospital and sources at the hospital confirmed that they had required immediate surgery.
A number of other workers sustained serious injuries, including internal bleeding, when the roof of the building’s first floor collapsed.
Col. Muhammad Al-Ghamdi, director of the Civil Department in Jeddah, told Arab News that the building collapsed because the wooden support was not strong enough to bear its concrete load. He said an investigation has been launched into the incident.
In another incident, Civil Defense officers put out a major fire that broke out in a Mercedes car at a workshop in the south Jeddah on Thursday.
The fire could have destroyed six other cars in the workshop and 10 repair shops in the immediate vicinity, had firefighters not turned up in time.
They reached the site in Rawabi District only minutes after receiving the information about the fire and put it out within 10 minutes. The police are investigating the cause of the blaze.
Another fire was reported at a garbage dump on the Dammam-Alkhobar coastal road on Thursday.
The fire was put out before it could reach nearby warehouses.
