Dubai: Police have found the body of a worker who was trapped in the rubble of a building under construction that collapsed in Al Muhaisnah 1 area early Tuesday morning.
Dubai Police told Gulf News that the incident happened shortly before the command room received a call around 8am on Tuesday requesting assistance.
Police said the third floor and scaffolding collapsed in a building near the Arabian Centre on Al Khawaneej Road and a worker was injured and another trapped.
“After 26 hours of search for the trapped man, we managed to identify the location under the concrete and pulled his body out at 11am on Wednesday,” Lieutenant-Colonel Ahmad Atiq Burqibah, deputy director of the Search and Rescue Department at Dubai Police, told Gulf News.
Police received a call at 7.57am reporting that a building had collapsed and some workers were trapped inside. Photos of the carnage appeared to show an entire floor had pancaked on the floor below it.
One worker was injured and the second pronounced death after he went missing for 26 hours under the collapsed ceiling.
“The whole ceiling of the third floor collapsed on the second floor. It is a residential complex under construction,” Lt-Col Burqibah said.
He confirmed that it was the concrete ceiling that had collapsed and an investigation was carried out to find out the reasons for the incident.
“We contacted the company to bring the maps of the building to help us in the search and rescue as it is a big place,” he said.
Sniffer dogs were used on scene to identify the location of the missing worker.
“We made a plan and divided the ceiling into small cubes and cut the cubes step by step and lift each one of them and look under it for the missing person. It was hard work,” he added.
Dubai Police and emergency crews including ambulances were seen at the site to provide necessary help and support while police checked the list of workers to make sure nobody else was trapped under the collapsed structure.