At least one person died after an enormous construction girder collapsed over a busy road in Thailand’s capital Bangkok, police said on Monday, with videos of the terrifying incident quickly shared online.
A large metal girder on the Lat Krabang highway construction project east of town collapsed to the bottom late Monday afternoon, surprising pedestrians and drivers.
This is an element of a project to construct elevated highways to ease town’s notoriously congested traffic.
In a video shared by the country’s Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, an enormous metal platform – connected to unfinished parts of the highway – wobbles after which falls to the bottom.
Police reported that not less than one person was killed and as many as eight were injured.
“We do not know yet what caused the accident,” Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt told reporters on the scene.
“We have no details about missing people yet,” he said, adding that the condition of the 4 injured was serious.
Chadchart said rescuers would wait for engineers to investigate the ship’s collapse before launching operations.
“We put safety first. We will start searching fastidiously,” he announced.
Holiday carnage returns to Thailand’s roads – 182 people died in three days
Holiday carnage returns to Thailand’s roads – 182 people died in three days
Footage shared online by a rescuer shows the aftermath of the collapse, with sirens blaring as shocked residents and bystanders survey the damage.
The destroyed girder – in addition to much of the highway under construction that was destroyed – is obstructing the road.
Rescuers were crowding over the rubble, and crushed vans and cars were already visible. As night fell, rescuers were still visible among the many rubble.
Thailand has a poor record on construction safety and accidents are a typical occurrence.
In 2016, not less than 13 people died when a constructing collapsed during construction.
The incident sparked renewed protests by labor groups which have long warned about lax safety standards and low wages on Thai construction sites.
