2 die, 3 injured after scaffolding collapses at construction site on Hong Kong’s former airport runway
- Industrial accident happened on construction site for luxury housing development Pano Harbour
- Three female workers were trapped under scaffolding and two others – a man and a woman – were also injured
Two women workers died and three other people were injured on Tuesday after bamboo scaffolding around a 30-storey building under construction on Hong Kong’s former airport runway collapsed.
One of the survivors, a woman, was working on the scaffolding outside the 19th floor of the luxury housing development, Pano Harbour, on the site of the old Kai Tak Airport, when the 15-by-eight-metre (49-by-26-foot) bamboo structure gave way just before 5pm.
The collapsed scaffolding – which the industry usually referred to as “truss-out scaffolding” – tumbled down to the ground floor and fell onto the other four workers, the Labour Department said.
Firefighters took 12 minutes to free two unconscious female workers trapped in the wreckage of the scaffolding.
The two, aged 54 and 68, were rushed to United Christian Hospital in Kwun Tong, but were later pronounced dead.
