YANBU: Ten Asian workers suffered injuries of varying degrees when a college building under construction collapsed yesterday. The building fell when the workers were pouring concrete onto its roof, the Royal Commission (RC) said in a statement.
The building belonged to the University College for Women located close to RC’s Medical Center.
According to Col. Mansour Al-Johani, spokesman for the Civil Defense in Madinah, 10 people were injured in the incident.
“Eight workers who were on the roof when it collapsed suffered bruises and injuries,” said the RC statement, adding that they were taken to RC Hospital in Yanbu.
The commission said the injured had been given proper medical care. “Four of them have already left hospital while the remaining four are still receiving treatment,” it added.
“We’ll conduct a detailed investigation to find out the reason for the accident,” the statement said.
Informed sources said the metallic support used for building the roof did not comply with the required specifications.
Al-Johani said his department’s rescue and first-aid teams rushed to the accident spot soon after receiving a call. “Our officers saw part of the one-story building collapsed,” he said, adding that the building covered an area of 900 meters. RC’s rescue and rapid intervention teams supported the Civil Defense in the rescue operation. Saud Al-Maliki, acting director general of the Royal Commission and other top officials visited the accident scene.
In a similar incident last year six people died and two were injured while they were working on an expansion project of Yanbu Industrial College. The dead included two Egyptians, a Bangladeshi and a Filipino.
