Durban - The Department of Labour has halted work at a construction site in Florida Road after a wall collapsed on two workers on Monday.
Workers had been digging a trench alongside a boundary wall outside Miami Boulevard, when the entire length of the wall collapsed on to the trench.
According to a bystander who wanted to remain anonymous, the men had been in the trench and had not anticipated the collapse.
It is unclear how many workers were in the trench at the time.
Some scrambled to safety, but two men had been trapped.
One of the worker’s hands was pinned under the wall while the other’s leg was trapped underneath the wall.
Both were taken to King Edward VIII Hospital.
Firemen and police rescue teams dug around the men and used a winch to pull them out.
The rescue effort took about 30 minutes.
The Department of Labour had assigned an inspector to investigate the incident, said spokesman, Lungelo Mkamba.
“The inspector has served the employer with a prohibition notice, stopping any further construction at the site. At this stage, the details of the full incident are still scant and remain a subject of investigations.
“If the employer is found to have been negligent and had flouted any aspect of the law, a recommendation to prosecute would be made to the Director of Public Prosecutions,” Mkamba said.
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