More than 40 crew working on the project, fifteen injured in accident at marina and city
A bridge under construction in Dubai has collapsed, killing seven workers.
Fifteen more workers have been admitted to hospital following the accident, which comes amid growing fears over safety standards on projects in the region.
More than 40 workers were working on the bridge at the time of its collapse, according to police. The bridge was being built in Dubai Marina, a new development in the UAE.
The accident comes two weeks after migrant workers in Dubai, which gets the majority of its labour from Asia, went on strike over pay and conditions.
UPDATE:
The killed and injured workers are reported to be employees of Middle-East based Wade Adams Group, a contracting firm. The company’s human resources director, N.M. Naushad, told AP the families of the dead workers would be compensated with a total of ten years of wages each. Naushad estimated the workers each earned an average $2,615 a year, resulting in a total of $26,142 over ten years.
Muthu Raj, an Indian worker present during the accident, explained to AP: “We tried to put a huge piece of metal in a wall when it collapsed. I saw colleagues trapped inside, but I managed to jump back and stepped on the road."
It has not been established what exactly triggered the accident. Matar Saeed Al Tayer, director general for the UAE’s Roads and Transport Authority, told reporters that a crane operator placed too many steel bars on top of the bridge, causing it to collapse. Other reports claim that a crane hit the bridge with a heavy load of steel.
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