Channel NewsAsia - 55 minutes
ago
Worker killed in
accident at Shenton Way demolition site
SINGAPORE : A man has been killed at a building site along Shenton
Way, after layers of floor slabs collapsed onto the excavator he
was in. The incident took place at the former Asia Insurance
Building on Friday while it was being demolished.
The loud bang and dust clouds took the lunchtime crowd by surprise,
even though demolition works had been going on at the former Asia
Insurance building for some months.
According to Civil Defence officers, a 5 by 5 metre concrete floor
slab on the 17th storey of the building had given way at around
12.20pm, creating a domino effect as it crashed onto the lower
floors.
SCDF said the falling debris slammed into an excavator on the
ground floor, before finally coming to a halt at the
basement.
One man said his coworker, a Chinese Singaporean in his 40s, was
in the excavator then.
Civil Defence officers extricated the body of the worker at 10.10pm
from the collapsed rubble, and have called off search
operations.
The Building and Construction Authority and the Manpower Ministry
are investigating the case and have revoked the demolition permit
at the site.
Many questions remain unanswered at this point.
But what is certain is that there would have been more casualties
had workers who were inside the building not gone out to lunch when
the concrete slab gave way. CNA/ms
