Eight Killed As Dubai Airport Wall Collapses

At least eight people were killed after a wall collapsed at a building site at Dubai airport today.

Workers said they saw up to 40 casualties being taken from the scene of the collapse, with some people reported to be trapped under the debris.

The construction work was being carried out as part of a £2.3bn expansion project at the airport, which includes building a third terminal.

French company Aeroports de Paris International is the design consultant for the work. The company also operates Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, where part of a terminal building's roof collapsed in May, killing four people.

An Aeroports de Paris official in Dubai said the firm was not involved in construction work at the site of today's accident. "We did the architecture, but we have nothing to do with the construction," the official said.

Around 150 workers were on the site when a large partition wall fell at 11am local time (0800 BST). "We all ran to help, but there wasn't anything we could do," worker Daljinder Singh said. "Rescue teams were very late in coming - it took them maybe an hour to arrive."

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

Dubai airport caters for 22 million passengers each year, and promotes itself as "the world's fastest-growing airport". The expansion programme has been designed to boost its capacity to 60 million passengers a year on its completion in 2018.