KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 — Three construction workers were injured after a multi-storey car park under construction at the Gombak Integrated Transport Terminal in Taman Melati collapsed early this morning.
Fire and Rescue Department commander M. Murugiah said three victims were trapped when the concrete building measuring 2,500 square feet at a construction site collapsed at around 1.13am.
“We received an emergency call and immediately dispatched a rescue team with 46 fire and rescue personnel,” he said in a statement here.
Two of the victims were rescued and subsequently sent to the hospital, while the remaining victim under the rubble was rescued at around 7.05am.
Other authorities participating in the rescue operations were the police, Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), the Health Ministry and the Civil Defence Force (APM).
Murugiah said rescue operations involved the use of tracking dogs to determine if more people were trapped.
Later, Kuala Lumpur Fire and Rescue Department director Nordin Pauzi said the three-storey parking lot had collapsed onto the worker’s quarters on the ground floor of the building where the three victims were located.
“Two of the workers were rescued by their fellow workers while rescue operations were focused on of the trapped worker whose body was wedged between a collapsed beam.
“After we managed to stabilise the structure, rescue operations resumed to extricate the victim,” he told reporters at the site.
Nordin said after consulting with medical and hospital personnel on site, the rescue team decided to amputate part of the victim’s crushed hand in order to free him from the rubble.
* Malay Mail incorrectly stated the name of the building in the incident as the car park at the Gombak LRT station. It is the car park at the Gombak Integrated Transport Terminal. The error has been corrected. The remaining victim was also rescued at around 7.05am, not 7.30am as initially reported. The error has been corrected.
