Collapse at Thai construction site kills 10 workers

USPA News - Ten workers were killed Tuesday and more than a dozen others were injured when a large concrete beam collapsed at the construction site of a medical center just outside the Thai capital of Bangkok, officials said. The cause was not immediately known.

The accident happened at around 11:30 a.m. local time at a construction site of Ramathibodi Hospital`s Chakri Naruebodindra Medical Center, which is located in Bang Phli District of Samut Prakan province, close to Bangkok. It happened when a concrete beam linking two buildings on the fourth floor fell onto construction workers who were eating their lunch. The Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, which in turn is part of Mahidol University, said six construction workers died at the scene of the collapse while four others died in hospital, putting the total number of fatalities at ten. Sixteen others were injured, two of them critically, and rescue teams were continuing to search the site to make sure no one was still trapped. At least some of those killed, among them a 15-year-old boy, were from Cambodia and Myanmar (Burma), district officials said. It was not immediately clear what caused the beam, measuring 20 meters (65.6 feet) wide and 15 meters (49.2 feet) long, to collapse.