Three construction workers were killed in a landslide that struck a construction site in Ukay Perdana, a residential neighbourhood near Kuala Lumpur, on Tuesday.
The incident which occurred on 11:30 am saw a large part of a housing area collapsing on the workers who were on duty. Eight workers were working at the construction site at the time of the collapse.
Fire officials reached the spot and conducted rescue operations. They managed to pull from the debris one of the workers whose both legs were fractured.
Selangor Fire and Rescue Department Assistant Director, Mohd Sani Harul, confirmed the occurrence and said the three deceased were foreign nationals belonging to Myanmar and were in their 30s.
"At approximately 11.29 am we received a call about the incident," Sani told News Straits Times. "One victim was pulled out severely injured by his co-workers, while the other was dead."
"The bodies were buried under 9 feet of earth and we believe suffocation to be the cause of death," he added.
Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (MPAJ) President Datuk Mohammad Yacob said that negligence on the part of the contractors had resulted in the tragedy.
"Upon investigation, we found that the incident happened because of the negligence of the contractors. When doing the escalation of the soil, the contractors did not notice the workers in the slope area that they were working in," Yacob told Astro Awani.
The deceased have been sent to Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) where doctors will conduct an autopsy.
