Three dead in construction site accident in Lausanne

According to the latest information, the victims were all construction workers, the Vaud cantonal police announced on Friday afternoon.

In addition, four people were seriously injured and four others suffered moderate to light injuries. One of the seriously injured was flown by helicopter to Geneva University Hospital. Six others had to be treated at Lausanne University Hospital.

Police spokesman Jean-Christophe Sauterel told the French news agency AFP that they were still looking for one or two more missing people.

The accident was reported to the authorities’ emergency call center at 9:22 a.m. on Friday. The workers were busy building the “Prilly Phare” in the west of Lausanne – a 19-story wooden residential tower that will house 96 apartments. The “Malley Lumières” shopping center is being extended by 14 floors on its west side.

An employee of a pharmacy in the shopping center reported hearing a loud noise and seeing a huge cloud of dust. Several witnesses, including construction workers, told the Keystone-SDA news agency that a freight elevator had collapsed, taking the scaffolding on the north side of the building with it.

The authorities initially did not want to confirm these statements or provide any information about the cause and exact course of events of the accident. These are still unclear, they said. The public prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation.

The roads around the construction site, a nearby railway line and the access roads to the surrounding buildings remained closed on Friday afternoon as more rubble threatened to fall.

Adapted from German by DeepL/dos

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