At least five people were killed, dozens injured and many others buried in a mix of concrete and fallen scaffolding as construction at the new Nanjing TV Station caved in yesterday - just days before a roof-topping ceremony.
Rescue workers last night were using digging equipment, cranes and welding torches to cut through a tangled maze of steel in search for the missing.
“There is little opportunity for survival because the victims will suffocate after being buried in the concrete for so long,” a doctor surnamed Tang told Shanghai Daily.
The doctor, who declined to provide her given name, works at Nanjing Air Force Hospital, 500 meters from the accident and the treatment site for most of the injured.
The collapse occurred shortly before 10 a.m. while workers for Nanjing No. 3 Construction Co. - the building’s contractor - were pouring concrete for the roof of a broadcast studio at the TV station’s new 10,000-square-meter headquarters in the city’s east.
Twenty-eight workers and one cameraman were on the six-story-tall scaffolding when it collapsed, apparently overloaded with concrete.
Seconds later they were on the ground covered by 32 tons of concrete and steel rods piled 4 meters high. The tangled jumble made it difficult for rescuers to reach those trapped.
The falling construction material also buried an unknown number of workers and other people who were on the ground at the time.
Another doctor at the Air Force hospital said two of the accident victims died there, including the TV camera-man, and three fatalities were reported at other hospitals. The Air Force hospital received 37 accident victims in all.
(eastday.com 10/26/2000)
