DUBAI, 28 September 2004 — At least five workers died and over 20 were injured when a wall under construction for a new terminal and concourses at the Dubai International Airport collapsed yesterday. The dead were identified as four Pakistanis and one Indian. Their names and other details were not immediately available, the Pakistani and Indian diplomatic missions in Dubai said.
The number of victims could go up as rescue workers dug deep into the rubble searching for bodies, they said. About 150 workers were in the area when the accident occurred. Several hundred people, many of them employed by sub-contractors, work at the site every day. Not more than 40 of them were involved in the accident.
Unnamed sources quoted by news agencies put the casualty figure at eight people killed and more than 30 injured, but these figures could not be independently confirmed. Only five bodies were reported at the police mortuary, the only place where bodies involved in accidents could be sent.
The Indian Consulate confirmed one of the dead was an Indian and said 12 of the injured were also from India. “Only a few remain in hospital and all others were discharged after treatment for injuries,” said Indian Consul General in Dubai and Northern Emirates Yash Sinha.
Commenting on the accident, Consul General of Pakistan in Dubai Amanullah Larik said consulate officials have been assigned to look after Pakistanis affected by the incident. However, he declined to confirm any casualties.
A Department of Civil Aviation statement said an investigation was ordered to determine the cause of the collapse. “Twelve workers were rescued and sent to Rashid and Baraha hospitals with injuries while five succumbed in the incident,” said the statement, which was issued shortly after the incident.
The accident occurred at the site of a $4.1 billion expansion project at the airport, described as the world’s largest growing airport. The project, expected to be completed by 2006, includes a new terminal and two concourses and will raise the number of passengers handled to 60 million by 2010.
