KUALA LUMPUR: A construction worker is believed to be pinned under the rubble when a part of an under-construction building at Jalan Cochrane here collapsed.
The building was an electrical substation located next to the MRT Cochrane station.
The building is believed to have collapsed at about 5pm.
City Fire and Rescue Department operation assistant director Ruhisha Haris said efforts to search for the victim will take time as there were scaffoldings and metal beams flung all over the area, and it was not safe for the rescuers.
“Works to remove the scaffolding and metal beams are being conducted. The team is currently breaking the concrete flooring, which the victim is pinned under,” he said.
The incident saw a Bangladeshi worker plunging down from the third floor to the ground floor.
Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) in a statement said the staging for the floor slab at the third floor of the main substation is believed to have collapsed while contractors were layering concrete at that level.
“Damage from the collapse and the cause behind the collapse is still under investigation.
Meanwhile, Mass Rapid Transit Corporation Sdn Bhd (MRT Corp) has clarified that the incident is not related to the Klang Valley MRT Project.
MRT Corp Director of Public Relations and Stakeholder Relations Datuk Najmuddin Abdullah said the corporation denied statements issued by any party linking the substation to the Cochrane MRT Station or the MRT Project.
“ "”The substation happened to be located next to the Cochrane MRT Station, hence the substation adopted the name based on this location,” he said in a statement.
Najmuddin said construction of the MRT Sungai Buloh Kajang Line, of which the Cochrane MRT Station is one of its stations, was completed and opened to the public in July 2017.
He said there was no longer any construction work undertaken by MRT Corp or any of its contractors at the Cochrane MRT Station site.
“So the substation which is currently under construction by Tenaga Nasional Berhad is not part of the MRT project,” he said.
The substation, he said, was believed to be for the upgrading of power supply in the whole area.
MRT Corp however expressed regret over the incident.