Indian worker found dead under building rubble in Singapore
Darpan News Desk IANS, 16 Jun, 2023 01:22 PM
Singapore, June 16 (IANS) The body of a 20-year-old Indian national, who died after a part of a building collapsed in Singapore, was pulled out of the rubble in rescue operations lasting for more than six hours, a media report said.
The Indian worker was pinned under two meters of debris after part of the Fuji Xerox Towers building in Tanjong Pagar collapsed on Thursday during demolition works, The Straits Times reported.
The weight of the concrete slab, estimated to be at least 50 tonnes, complicated the rescue efforts, which involved cutting, breaking and digging through the rubble.
The body was recovered at about 9.45 p.m. local time on Thursday.
"Following an intensive search operation, a worker who was earlier reported missing was sighted to be pinned under a collapsed reinforced concrete structure at about 6 p.m. The worker had no pulse and was not breathing," The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said in a statement.
SCDF officers arrived at the site earlier in the day after being alerted to the incident at about 2 p.m.
Eleven emergency vehicles and 70 officers were deployed to find the worker, including firefighters, rescue workers and emergency medical workers.
The worker was the employee of Aik Sun, the firm which was carrying out the demolition works.
A representative from Aik Sun told The Times that it needed time to find out what caused the collapse.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and Building and Construction Authority (BCA), in a joint statement earlier on Thursday night, said a reinforced concrete wall on the second storey -- measuring about 10m long and 3.8m high -- collapsed onto the street during demolition.
"BCA (Building Construction Authority) has instructed the project parties to stop all construction activities and will revoke the permit for all works while investigations are ongoing. MOM has also instructed the employer of the worker to stop all works at the site," the MOM statement read.
It added that the rest of the building has been assessed to be stable, and there are no concerns over its structural integrity.
Demolition firm Aik Sun said in a Facebook post, which now stands deleted, that the structural demolition of Fuji Xerox Towers began in February 2022.
Office workers in the area said they felt tremors when the building structure collapsed.
Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew that a customer who visited the 7-Elven store found no one was working and called police, WTKR said. When police went there they found Patel, 52, and Logan Edward Thomas, 35, dead at the store attached to a petrol station, Drew said.
The outside experts voted unanimously that the benefits of the shots outweigh any risks for children under 5 — that’s roughly 18 million youngsters. They are the last age group in the U.S. without access to COVID-19 vaccines and many parents have been anxious to protect their little children.
Fauci is Biden’s chief medical adviser and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He was a leading member of the White House coronavirus task force under former President Donald Trump.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency is developing an initiative for “fair access” to vaccines and treatments that it hopes will be ready within weeks. The mechanism was proposed shortly after Britain, Canada, France, Germany, the U.S. and other countries reported hundreds of monkeypox cases last month.
As of Friday, the U.S. had identified 45 cases in 15 states and the District of Columbia. More than 1,300 cases have been found in about 30 other countries outside the areas of Africa where the virus is endemic.
Officers responded to the Columbia Machine Inc. at around 2:30 p.m, where they found the four victims, the Washington County Sheriff's Office wrote in the latest press release. The suspect fled the scene prior to law enforcement's arrival. The suspect's vehicle was later encountered by Maryland State Police.
