COUPLE KILLED IN LRT BUILDING COLLAPSE
Husband and wife found in rubble of building under construction at Gombak LRT station
TWO foreign workers were killed, another had his trapped hand partially amputated and another two narrowly escaped death when a building under construction at the Gombak Putra LRT station in Taman Melati, near here partially collapsed early yesterday.
The bodies of the two foreign workers, who were husband and wife, were found embracing each other, said Kuala Lumpur Fire
and Rescue Department director Nordin Pauzi.
He said a search-and-rescue (SAR) mission for the couple began at 9.30am after they received information that two workers were unaccounted for.
The bodies were retrieved at 2.07pm and 2.10pm, said Nordin.
Gombak police chief Assistant Commissioner Samsor Maarof said the SAR was mounted after the couple’s friend and a fellow worker at the construction site said he could not get in touch with them despite calling them numerous times.
The last he saw the husband and wife was at 11pm on Wednesday night.
“The worker claimed that he saw the victims enter the building after they had coffee about 11pm,” Samsor said.
He said the two dead victims and three surviving victims were found in different locations of the collapsed structure.
“The survivors were found on the ground floor, whereas the two dead victims were believed to have fallen from the top floor, with the rubble from the building crashing on top of them.”
A friend of the couple, Heru Susiawan, in his 30s, said foreign workers staying at the construction site often went to the top floor of the building to get better phone coverage.
“I saw the couple going to the top floor at 11pm before going to sleep. At 1am, I was awakened by a loud noise. I did not expect the couple to die in the building collapse.”
Nordin said out of three foreign workers rescued earlier in the day, two were Indonesian workers, who were there after the incident at 1am. The third victim, a Bangladeshi, whose hand was trapped in the rubble of the collapsed building, was rescued at 7.16am.
“We found that the hand was crushed under the rubble and had to amputate part of it to extricate him.”
Nordin said they had to resort to the move after receiving advice from a doctor and medical officers at the location. The victim was rushed to Selayang Hospital for treatment.
“The collapse was believed to have been caused by the weak structure but investigations are being conducted.
“The collapse involved the entry route into the parking area and construction work has been stopped for now.”
Fire and Rescue Department Operations Commander M. Murugiah said they received an emergency call through the MERS 999 line at 1.13am, and fire tenders together with 46 personnel were dispatched from the Wangsa Maju and Gombak Selatan fire stations to the site.
The Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) issued an immediate stop-work order.
Federal Territory and Putrajaya DOSH director Husdin Che Amat said the order was issued under the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 and would be enforced until it found the cause of the incident as well as action that needed to be taken.