Makkah Gov. Prince Mishaal bin Abdullah has called for an investigation after six construction workers were killed on Wednesday morning when a retaining wall at a building project in the city collapsed.
The governor also set up a technical committee to determine the reason for the accident, said Maj. Gen. Jameel Al-Arbaeen, director general of Civil Defense Department in the Makkah region.
Civil Defense rescuers and other workers used heavy equipment to dig up the bodies of the victims from the under sand and heavy concrete blocks that formed the 12-meter-high wall. The wall had a length of 50 meters.
The victims were reportedly Indian and Pakistani nationals working for a leading construction company that actively engaged in various development projects in Makkah.
“We had dug out five bodies in the morning and another body later in the evening,” said Col. Saleh Al-Olayani, Makkah Civil Defense spokesman.
“Five other workers sustained minor to moderate injuries and were transferred to a local hospital for treatment.”
“The construction site where the accident occurred is far away and barricaded from pedestrian and vehicular traffic,” he said.
The temporary wall had been built as a preventive and supportive measure for the ongoing construction of a ring road amid massive expansion projects in the city.
Saudi officials have neither confirmed nor denied the nationality of the workers.
