PHNOM PENH, Dec 2 — Two workers died and 10 others were seriously injured after an under-construction dining hall at a Cambodian temple collapsed, police said Monday, in the latest fatal accident to strike the kingdom’s poorly regulated building sector.
The structure fell in on itself as workers laid concrete on the first floor of the building inside a pagoda compound in Siem Reap province, police said.
Local media showed an excavator trying to clear the site as rescuers carried away metal debris.
“So far we have pulled out some 10 people. They were all seriously injured,” deputy provincial police chief Phing Sambath told AFP.
“Two people died in hospital,” he said, adding there were no details of how many workers might be trapped in the rubble.
Local media reported more than 20 workers were working at the site when the structure went down.
Nearly 30 people died in June after the collapse of a building under construction in Sihanoukville, a beach town undergoing a Chinese investment bonanza.
Cambodia has enjoyed a construction boom but there is little oversight of the sector.
There are an estimated 200,000 construction workers in Cambodia, most unskilled, reliant on day wages and not protected by union rules, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). — AFP
