Rescue team searches for fifth body

The death toll in Sunday's construction accident in the Al Liyyah area yesterday rose to six, with one of the victims dying during surgery.

Sharjah Police are still investigating the cause of the accident in which the scaffolding collapsed, plunging 13 workers to the ground 15 metres below, and sending steel bars and 100 tonnes of wet cement cascading on top of them.

Until yesterday afternoon, a rescue team was searching for the body of the fifth worker thought to be buried in the concrete.

Of the five who died on Sunday, two were retrieved immediately, and another two recovered later.

The names of the dead were revealed by Sharjah Police yesterday. They are Pakistanis Najeeb Khan Shafeeq Khan, 24, and Enayatullah Khan Dor Khan, 48; Bangladeshis Anwar Hussain bin Raisi, 37; Abdul Rahman Tota, whose age was not specified; and an Indian, Balvinder Singh, 38. Singh died yesterday during surgery.

The survivors are Pakistanis Farhan Ali Khan, 26, Mardood Khan Mohammed, 44, Abdul Hamid Mohammed Deen, 42, Mohammed Iqbal, 43, and Abdul Shakoor Haji Mohammed, 25; Egyptians Alaa' Mohammed Sulaiman, 37, and Mohammed Hamed Madhi, 30.

One of the two bodies recovered immediately was sent to Al Kuwaiti Hospital in the afternoon, while two others recovered later were sent at 1.30am yesterday, according to a source at the hospital.

There were six survivors admitted at this hospital, including the one who succumbed to his injuries during surgery.

Two of the remaining five survivors are in a critical condition while the rest are in a moderate condition, a source at the hospital said yesterday. Three of them were admitted to the surgery section and two to the orthopaedic section.

One of the bodies recovered immediately after the collapse was taken to Al Qassimi Hospital. The condition of the two survivors admitted there is stable.

Meanwhile, in a press release, Sharjah Municipality denied any responsibility for the accident. It said that the building being built for the Planning and Survey Department is a government project.

Engineer Rashid Al Owais, Director of the Technical Affairs Department, said that the project does not fall under the Municipality's supervision, but is supervised by another government department.

The municipality supervises and checks construction projects carried out by the private sector as well as its own projects.

He stressed that the municipality follows standard specifications and criteria regarding the safety of workers at construction sites. The Municipality supervises and checks phases of construction.

He pointed out that the authorities should be sure of where the responsibility lay before apportioning blame.