Four died in Afghan hospital collapse
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-07-28 01:20

Four people were found dead in the rubble of a hospital that collapsed during renovation in the Afghan capital, officials said Tuesday. Twelve construction workers were missing and twenty-six more were injured, including three Chinese.

A wing of the stripped-down structure of the Jamhuriat Hospital crumbled without warning Monday, burying workers carrying for the Chinese-Afghan company doing the reconstruction. 

A photographer takes picture as German soldiers rescue an injured worker from a dilapidated building on the construction site of the Jamhoriat Shafakhana, or Republican hospital, in Kabul on Monday. [xinhua]

By Tuesday, rescue teams using earth-movers, cranes and shovels had found four Afghans dead, Health Minister Suhaila Siddiqi told The Associated Press. Another official said one man had been pulled out alive on Tuesday morning.

"Unfortunately two people were killed yesterday and today we found two more in the collapsed building, said Siddiqi. "We're still looking for people trapped but can't see any more."

Of the twenty-six people injured, eight had been discharged from hospital, she said, apparently including the three Chinese. Two more were being treated at a field hospital operated by NATO troops in the capital. Danish and German paramedics provided emergency treatment at the scene.

Abdullah Shirzoy, the deputy minister told Associated Press Television News that 12 people had been reported missing, but cautioned that some might among those wounded but not properly identified.

An injured Chinese worker receives medical treatment at a local hospital in Kabul on Monday. [xinhua]

A minor earthquake could be the cause, some witnesses said.

Earthquakes earlier this year jolted Kabul, damaging a few houses.

The China-aid project is being carried out by the China National Complete Plant Import and Export Corporation Group, said a corporate official, who did not give his name.

The main building of the hospital was in danger before the corporation began working on it, the official said.

After the accident, a special team headed by Tang Jianguo, general manager of the company, was immediately sent to Afghanistan to handle details.

According to a plan, the building should have been torn down for the construction of a new facility, but the Afghan government rejected the idea. A team of experts from China reviewed and adopted the suggestion of the Afghans in January, choosing to rehabilitate the site rather than to put up a new building, said Sun.

The right side of the building which has already been renovated is intact and unharmed, while the other side under construction collapsed.

The US$5 million project is a major Chinese-assistance project in the post-war Afghanistan along with the Parwan irrigation project.

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