UK: Five dead in industrial accident in Birmingham

By Michael Sercan Daventry

LONDON (AA) – Five men were killed and another man was left in a critical condition following an industrial accident in the English city of Birmingham Thursday morning.

Local firefighters said a large concrete wall containing metal collapsed on top of the workers, all reported to be foreign nationals, at a metal recycling plant in the city’s Nechells district.

The injured man was hospitalized with leg injuries following the accident.

“On arrival, ambulance crews found a wall that had collapsed. Sadly, there was nothing that could be done to save the five men who had been working next to it,” a spokesman for West Midlands Ambulance service said in a statement.

“A sixth man was partially trapped by the falling concrete but had managed to get out from the rubble himself. He was treated at the scene by ambulance staff and the doctor from the air ambulance for a broken leg before he was taken to Heartlands Hospital for further treatment.”

Manka Sawo, a friend of the workers, told the local Birmingham Mail newspaper the victims were all Spanish citizens of Gambian origin.

Specialist teams at the site were still in the process of recovering the bodies on Thursday afternoon.