Five workers have been killed by fallen steel mesh designed to reinforce a 15 by 60-metre support wall, which is part of a construction project at Dubai International Airport, medical sources said.

“There has been an incident at the construction site of Terminal 3,” airport spokeswoman Lavina Dixit Chatterjee said.


Twelve workers had also been trapped under the steel mesh, but they were rescued and taken to Rashid and Baraha hospitals, a statement by the Civil Aviation Department said.

The accident occurred at about 10:45 am.

The site, which is part of a $4 billion airport expansion project, is owned by the Department of Civil Aviation and is a joint venture being developed by Al Naboodah-Laing O’Rouke, which has refused to comment on the accident.

The airports bills itself as “the world’s fastest growing airport.”

Dubai, one of seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates, is a rapidly growing regional trade and tourism hub.

The project includes a new terminal that, when complete, will raise the number of passengers handled by the airport to 46 million a year when it is completed in 2006. The airport currently serves 22 million passengers a year.

> Dubai airport expansion split into five parts