The injured construction worker who was trapped under sand for hours at a construction site in Ballito on the KwaZulu-Natal north coast, has been freed by rescuers.
The man is believed to be in a critical condition and was taken to hospital. Four of his co-workers died following an embankment collapse on Saturday morning.
Construction workers were believed to be constructing a gabion wall at a house construction site, when the embankment collapsed, burying five of them. Rescuers later retrieved four of the men who were declared dead at the scene.
The fifth worker miraculously survived after being trapped for at least six hours under the sand. It’s believed the man’s legs were pinned under a part of the gabion wall.
A trauma surgeon was also called to the scene to assist with the rescue mission.
Ballito Construction Collapse | Fifth victim found alive: Samantha Meyrick:
A relative of some of the construction workers arrived at the scene late on Saturday afternoon. She said she was upset as the family was not getting any information.
She said she didn’t know if two of her nephews who were working at the site were among the deceased.
Rescuers had to halt their rescue operations temporarily earlier in the day when the site was deemed too dangerous after mutiple sand collapses occurred.
An excavator was also brought on site to assist with digging out the sand to rescue those trapped.
