Three killed after wall collapses

Freedom day - a holiday for most, but work for others. As shoppers happily went about their day at Sanlam Centre Bluff, a few metres away three men lay buried in rubble tombs while another battled for his life.

As policemen stood around the parking area, waiting and watching, the shoppers barely cast a second glance at the emergency vehicles and helicopter in the parking lot.

A few curious onlookers stopped, wanting to see what was happening, but their view was blocked by the emergency vehicles and they soon moved on.

On the other side of the centre, shoppers were oblivious to the drama that was unfolding.

Inside, rescue workers frantically tried to free the only surviving victim of a construction job that went horribly wrong.

"Basically, four demolition workers were breaking down a retaining wall in the centre using jackhammers when a section of the wall collapsed in on them," explained a South African Police Services (SAPS) spokesperson, who did not wish to be named.

He said the retaining wall was about 4m high and around half a metre thick. A section at of least 6m long caved in

on to the workers, killing three and trapping the other.

"A joint rescue operation was launched and we began the intricate process of extraction," said the spokesman.

The extraction process took more than four hours, he added, and the emergency staff had used jackhammers and the jaws of life to break and lift large sections of the fallen concrete.

"Our priority was to get to the person who was still alive," he said.

Although investigations have to be carried out to determine the exact cause of the incident, it appears that the retaining wall collapsed when the workers started demolishing it, said police spokesperson Director Bala Naidoo.

Bala added that charges of negligence could be brought against their employer.

The names of the three victims and the name of the injured man - who was airlifted to King Edward VIII Hospital - have not yet been released.