At least four dead as building collapses

Accra, Sept. 16, GNA - At least four people have been confirmed dead on Saturday as a storey building under construction in Accra collapsed on the workers.

The Chief Executive, Coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Mr Isaac George Amoo, who went to the scene, said five people had been pulled out of the rubble and sent to hospital.

He said the number of people still buried under the ruins was not known and rescue workers made up of NADMO, police and National Fire Service using excavators were working to save those still trapped. The cause of the collapse is not known, but eyewitnesses said the building came down when workers were removing wood that had been use to cast concrete on the first flow of the structure.

"We don't know what happened, but the building just went down as we were working," one worker said.

Mr Amoo said he believed the structure collapsed because of poor quality work and asked the various assemblies to insist on good quality work always.

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly has drawn up a strict code of building regulations following the collapse of a number of buildings under construction in Accra. 16 Sept. 07