Dubai, Aug 16 (KT): Twenty-one workers had a narrow escape when a six-storey building that was under construction in the Deira area collapsed on Sunday, a police officer said.
No one was injured, but nearly a dozen cars were destroyed.
Sniffer dogs searched the rubble till late at night.
The building on Al Ittihad Road at the Galadari Intersection, next to Ramada Continental Hotel, collapsed around 3.30pm, said Brigadier Khalil Al Mansouri, director of General Department of Criminal Investigation.
He said 21 workers were inside the building when they heard the crackling sound. Ten of them rushed to safety, and the remaining 11 were later evacuated, along with people from neighbouring buildings, minutes before the building collapsed.
Colonel Ahmed AL Sayeq, deputy director of Dubai Civil Defence, said the neighbouring buildings were evacuated for fear that water leakage in the ground may have caused the collapse.
The Acting Commander-in-Chief of Dubai Police, Major-General Khamis Mattar Al Mazina, said Hazaa Contracting and Bait Al Emarat Engineering Consultants, the building’s developers, will be investigated in coordination with Dubai Municipality.
Marwan Abdullah, head of Building Licensing Unit, Dubai Municipality, said that a team of experts were examining the site.
“We felt tremors and looked outside and saw something like smoke,” said Ishraq Hibib, 17, who lives in Yasmeen building, about 100m from the site .
Ali Hassan, another resident in the area, said, “While I was having lunch I heard a noise and I thought that it was an earthquake. We saw cars under the concrete and glass that covered them.”
Office workers in the area also thought an earthquake had occurred.
“I’m about 400m away. I experienced a jerk in our building and thought it was an earthquake,” said Zainudheen Parissery.