Three injured as 14-storey scaffolding collapses

LONDON - Three people were seriously injured today when scaffolding on a partially built building collapsed in high winds, hospital officials and police said.

Eyewitnesses said the scaffolding on the building site in Milton Keynes, north of London, fell like a "pack of cards".

Thames Valley police said three men had been rescued from the site at a new Jury's Inn hotel development at Witan Gate and taken to hospital.

"We have received three casualties," a spokesman for Milton Keynes General Hospital told Reuters. "All are classed as being seriously injured."

The three men were in a stable condition after having been treated for leg, chest and facial injuries.

A spokesman for the ambulance service said several people were treated for minor injuries at the scene.

Eamonn Laverty, managing director of site contractors McAleer and Rushe, said the scaffolding had collapsed in high winds.

"Our prime concern is for the health and well-being of the individuals involved in the incident and to this end we are awaiting an update on their condition from the hospital," Laverty said.

Chief Inspector Andy Standen of Thames Valley police said firefighters had been using heat-seeking equipment to recover people trapped on the site.

"The three guys who have been hauled from the wreckage were very, very fortunate not to have died," Standen told reporters.

"If you consider a 14-storey scaffolding structure collapsing while building work is continuing, the people of Milton Keynes are lucky it was not much, much worse."

Standen said a "thorough investigation" would be carried out by health and safety officials.

One witness reported a "huge roar" as debris plunged to the ground.

"I saw it concertina down," witness Doug Masson told reporters. "It took no more than 20 seconds to fall.

"It sounded like a low rumbling of thunder."

Local resident Christopher Key told Sky News the collapsed scaffolding looked like a "pile of matchsticks".

Up to 20 ambulances and two air ambulances were called to the scene.

- REUTERS