2 killed, 6 wounded in construction site scaffolding collapse in Ramat Gan
Firefighters and paramedics extricate people trapped under debris; police say Lahav 433 investigative unit to probe incident
Two people were killed and six others were wounded when scaffolding collapsed at a construction site in Ramat Gan on Thursday afternoon.
The incident between Eshel and Krinitzi streets in the Tel Aviv-adjacent city occurred shortly after 1 p.m. as laborers worked at the site of a seven-story building, according to police and first responders.
Those wounded included two in serious condition, with the others in moderate and light condition. The injured were brought by paramedics to Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan and Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva.
First responders at the scene, including from Magen David Adom and the Fire and Rescue Services, had to work to locate and evacuate several of the workers who had been buried underneath the scaffolding following the collapse.
Volunteers with United Hatzalah who arrived at the scene said that passersby who witnessed the incident said a crane at the site struck the scaffolding, causing it to collapse.
The two victims were identified as Mustafa and Ali Alhoumade, aged 48 and 35, respectively, from the West Bank city of Hebron.
The police’s Lahav 433 special investigative unit opened a probe into the incident and detained five suspects for questioning later Thursday.
Such construction site accidents are not infrequent in Israel, with watchdog groups complaining of little oversight and dangerous working conditions.
In mid-February, a man was killed when he fell from scaffolding that collapsed on the eighth floor of a building site in the coastal city of Netanya. A week earlier, two construction workers were killed in Ashdod when a wall collapsed on them during electric cable infrastructure work.
In January, a construction worker was killed by a collapsing wall at a site in the central city of Bnei Brak and a week before that, two construction workers were killed within minutes of each other in accidents at separate locations.
