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SUNDAY, September 27, 2015 / 13 Dhul Hijja 1436 AH
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Safety worries after Ghala building collapse kills one Tonnes of concrete fell on the workers standing at a construction site while they were trying to tighten the
death of one worker
MOBIN MATHEW BLESSON mobinmathew@timesofoman.com
TRAGIC DEATH: Rescue teams engaged in the salvage operation after the collapse of the pillar in Ghala on Wednesday. –PACDA/Times of Oman
MUSCAT: “Suddenly the pillar broke and the ceiling collapsed.” These words by survivors, encapsulated the dramatic moments before the first floor of a building collapsed on workers in Muscat, killing one.
according to eyewitnesses. An employee from the construction site who did not want to be unidentified, said, “The accident happened when three of our workers were tightening the pillar which provides support to the ceiling. “When we were concreting the roof, we felt that the pillar to support the ceiling was not tight enough. Three of our workers went down to tighten the pillar but suddenly the pillar snapped and the ceiling collapsed.” Shomon Shuthradho had been working in the company for more than three years. The under-construction building is located opposite Savoy Hotel in South Azaiba, Ghala. “The equipment we were using
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is new but the accident occurred because of the heavy load,” asserted workers. There were around 25 workers in the building when it collapsed. According to Public Authority of Civil Defence and Ambulances (PACDA) the body was found at around 2am on Thursday while the building had collapsed at 4pm on Wednesday. Experts in Oman say the country needs to strive harder to embrace health and safety measures. Meanwhile, an official from
Sultanate celebrates Eid Al Adha
A2 OMAN
Sohar celebrates arrival of HM
S AU D I D E AT H S
Climbed fence to avoid being crushed: Pilgrim
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To Mark the Royal arrival of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said in the Wilayat of Sohar, the residents of the wilayat organised a celebration in front of Sohar’s historic castle on Friday. Omani traditional troupes staged a number of programmes. >A3
OMAN
Loans weighing down on Omanis
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An array of debts ranging from mortgages, student loans, cars and credit cards is weighing down on most Omanis. The age of loan applicants is getting younger. Student loans have pushed down the age of applicants. >A3
MARKET
Natural gas output, imports grow 5.3%
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Oman’s natural gas production and imports rose 5.3 per cent to 26,269 million cubic metres (MNCM) for the first eight months of this year, from 24,942 MNCM in the same period last year. >B1
HM sends condolences MUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has sent a cable of condolences to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for the victims of the Haj rush in Mina. In his cable, His Majesty the Sultan has expressed his heartfelt and sincere condolences, praying to Allah to show mercy and forgiveness on the deceased, rest their souls in heavens, grant their family members patience and ensure speedy recovery of the injured. -ONA
Bodies of girls who drowned in wadi found
pillar resulting in the
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SAUDI ARABIA
WA D I A L J I Z I
screws underneath a
Crushed to death Rescuers worked through the night in an attempt to save Shomon Shuthradho after he was crushed under the falling rubble of the building. But eight hours after the accident, at 2am on Thursday morning, the search ended in tragedy when the body of the Bangladeshi construction worker was recovered. Workers were concreting the first floor of the building in Ghala,
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HOLY RITUAL: An aerial view of the walkway leading to the pil-
lars where pilgrims throw stone on the second day of ‘Jamarat’ ritual, in Mina near the Holy city of Mecca, on Friday. -AFP
REJIMON K
reji@timesofoman.com MUSCAT: “As a few of us managed to climb on the fence on the Street 204, we escaped from being crushed to death in the stampede, but the tragedy we witnessed later on, is an unforgettable one in our lives.” These were the words of Basheer Faizy Deshamangalam, an Indian Islamic scholar and Haj pilgrim, who managed to escape from the Mina stampede, which has claimed 717 lives so far and causing injuries to another 800, on Thursday. Deshamangalam said he and some others saw pilgrims being crushed in front of them by others who were running in panic. “Within seconds, we saw one
of the biggest human tragedies unfolding right before our eyes,” Basheer told the Times of Oman from Mina over the phone. “We were left speechless. We saw bodies of people belonging to different races lying on the ground together. I have never seen such an awful scene,” he said. According to Basheer and other witnesses, they were among the thousands who were on their way to perform “Stoning the Devil” ritual. “It is a one-way route. Meanwhile, we heard that some, who were returning after the ritual, had taken a short cut to avoid a long walk and entered our street, which led to Jamarāt. This reportedly created confusion and resulted in the stampede,” said Basheer. >A3
the Bangladeshi embassy said that Shomon was a supervisorlevel employee and a documented worker. “What we heard was that he had gone to supervise the work that evening. While he was standing inside the building the ceiling fell on him. He was trapped and only after eight hours did the rescue team manage to extricate his body,” said the embassy official. “The paperwork to repatriate the body and to claim the workplace accident compensation will be done in the coming days,” added the official. Recently, four Bangladeshi workers died, three of them on the spot, while four others were injured in Yiti, when the JCB
machine in whose bucket they were travelling, toppled over as it was being driven by an inexperienced driver. Of the seven workers travelling in the JCB bucket to their work site, who accidentally fell, three were crushed to death on the spot, while one succumbed to injuries at a hospital in Muscat. Bangladeshi migrant All the victims, including the injured and the dead, were identified as Bangladeshi migrant workers who were employed at a landscape project in Jebel Sifah. In all, there are 563,344 Bangladeshi workers in Oman, according to the Oman government’s latest data.
REJIMON K reji@timesofoman.com MUSCAT: The bodies of two young girls, who had drowned in Wadi Al Jizi in Sohar, have been recovered, rescue personnel informed on Twitter. This information was shared by the Public Authority of Civil Defence and Ambulances in a tweet at around 1:45pm. The nationalities of the victims are not known as yet. Last Tuesday, talking exclusively to the Times of Oman, the police had urged citizens and residents to stay safe, drive responsibly, and swim safely, and desist from playing with fire during the long weekend. Last year, during the Eid Al Adha holidays, nine people had drowned in different incidents.