- Title: UAE: FIVE DEAD IN DUBAI AIRPORT BUILDING SITE COLLAPSE
- Date: 27th September 2004
- Summary: (EU) DUBAI , UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (SEPTEMBER 27, 2004) (REUTERS -- ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV POLICE CORDON 0.05 2. SLV BULLDOZER AT CORDON 0.10 3. LV BULLDOZER DRIVING ONTO SITE 0.21 4. SV/LV WORKERS WALKING ALONG ROAD (2 SHOTS) 0.43 5. SLV POLICEMAN TALKING ON RADIO 0.49 6. LV WORKERS WALKING ALONG ROAD 0.55 7. SLV
- Embargoed: 12th October 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
- Country: United Arab Emirates
- Reuters ID: LVA280JQFE2FSFP89SUQLOJ9N66B
- Story Text: Five dead in Dubai airport building site collapse.
A steel mesh wall collapsed on workers building a
multi-billion-dollar extension to Dubai's international
airport on Monday (September 27), killing five and injuring
12, authorities said.
"During the preparation of a wall, a section of the
reinforcement cage fell, trapping workers," Dubai's
Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) said in a statement.
"Twelve workers were rescued and sent to hospitals with
injuries while five succumbed in the incident."
The accident occurred at the site of a $4.1 billion
expansion project for Dubai airport, one of the busiest in
the Middle East.
Hundreds of workers, mostly Asians, were seen streaming
off the construction site and were driven away in buses.
Police sealed off the area as ambulances and police cars
rushed in and out.
Many workers were caught underneath the rubble and it
was not immediately known if the rescue operation was over.
The DCA said it was launching an investigation.
Dubai, one of seven emirates that make up the United
Arab Emirates, is a rapidly growing regional trade and
tourism hub. Dubai airport is a main transit route for Asia
and the West, handling 18 million passengers last year.
The expansion project, due to be completed by 2006,
includes a new passenger terminal and two concourses that
airport officials say will raise the number of passengers
handled to 60 million by 2010.
One of the main contractors is a venture between local
firm Al Naboodah and international group Laing O'Rourke.
Design consultants include Lebanon's Dar al-Handassah
and France's Aeroports de Paris International, operator of
Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport where a terminal
partially collapsed in May.
There have been several industrial accidents in recent
years in the UAE, an oil-rich Gulf Arab state where
foreigners form the bulk of the workforce.
In May, six expatriate workers were killed when a
one-storey building under construction collapsed in the
emirate of Sharjah. In March 2002, seawater surged into a
ship repair yard in Dubai, killing 25 Asian workers.
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