BERLIN: At least five workers were killed in the northern German city of Hamburg on Monday when a scaffolding collapsed at a building site, a fire brigade spokesman said. Other laborers were still thought to be trapped under the rubble, AFP news agency reported.
The spokesman said that several people are buried under the scaffolding and are thought to be missing, while five workers died at the scene of the accident. Some seventy emergency responders were at the site seeking to rescue those trapped in the wreckage.
The spokesman said that it is not immediately clear what caused the scaffolding at the construction site to tip over. The deadly accident occurred in HafenCity, a once scruffy port district that has become one of the biggest urban construction projects in Europe.
The scaffolding came down at the Westfield Hamburg-Ueberseequartier, a nascent residential, business, and leisure development that is to include a big new cruise ship terminal when it is completed in early 2024. The scaffolding in a building shaft came down on at least eight workers, according to local media.
Building Site Evacuated After Accident
The entire construction site was evacuated, including some seven hundred workers. Police at the scene cordoned off the site with tape, and a rescue helicopter and several ambulances arrived to shift wounded workers recovered from the wreckage.
The state media reported that the workers had fallen from the 8th floor of a building under construction. It said rescuers were using heavy equipment to clear the wreckage and recover other victims. It quoted a fire brigade spokesperson as saying that the rescue work itself was highly risky for the staff at the scene.
