Wall Collapse At Dubai Airport

A large wall in a building under construction at Dubai airport collapsed Monday, killing at least eight people and injuring many more, a contractor said.

Workers at the site said they saw up to 40 casualties being taking away, but there was no confirmation of the number of wounded.

"At least eight people were killed on the spot and some died in hospital, but we don't know how many," an official of Al-Naboodah Contracting Co., the main contractor at the site, said on condition of anonymity.

A large partition in a building under construction at the site collapsed, the contractor said. About 150 workers were on the site when the partition fell at 11 a.m..

"The wall fell down, and we all ran to help, but there wasn't anything we could do," said worker Daljinder Singh. "Rescue teams were very late in coming. It took them maybe one hour to arrive."

Other workers put the casualties at about 40, saying most were injured.

"I saw many, many of my colleagues being taken away," a worker said, before he was told to be quiet by a supervisor.

Airport spokeswoman Lavina Dixit Chatterjee said there had been "an incident at the construction site of Terminal 3," but did not give details. Police said there were casualties, but they did not know how many.

The airport is being upgraded and expanded in a $4.1 billion program. It bills itself "the world's fastest growing airport."

The design consultant for the Terminal 3 construction is Aeroports de Paris International, according to the airport's official web site. The French firm also operates Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, where part of a terminal collapsed in May, killing four people.

An Aeroports de Paris official in Dubai said the firm was not involved in the construction where Monday's accident occurred.

"We did the architecture, but we have nothing to do with the construction," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The United Arab Emirates is the main financial hub of the Arab world, and the Dubai airport handles 22 million passengers a year, including about 20 flights a day from Pakistani cities. The expansion is designed to boost the airport's capacity to 60 million passengers a year when it is completed in 2018.