Durban - A 22-year-old man was injured when a building he was assisting to demolish collapsed on top of him in the Hilltop area of Redcliffe located next to Verulam in KwaZulu-Natal on Monday.
Reaction Unit SA (Rusa) spokesperson Prem Balram said Rusa was called to assist a man who was injured after an informal house collapsed on him.
Balram said Rusa received the call for medical assistance just after 1pm.
He said when paramedics arrived at the scene, they treated the man for moderate injuries before transporting him to hospital by ambulance.
Balram said while the man suffered moderate injuries, his friend was not injured.
Describing the events that led up to the collapse, Balram said the man and a friend were assisting a neighbour to demolish a dilapidated building when the structure collapsed on him.
“Neighbours sifted through metal sheeting and concrete before freeing him,” he said.
In April, The Mercury reported that a 28-year-old man was badly injured after a structure collapsed at a building site in Chatsworth.
Paramedics said rescuers had to use cranes to lift the concrete slabs off the man who was trapped from the waist down. He sustained critical injuries.
Earlier this year, IOL reported that a worker was killed when a sand bank collapsed on top of him at a construction site in Somme Road in Musgrave.
By the time paramedics and eThekwini Fire arrived, other workers had already begun digging up the sand around the man.
Rescuers, who took over from the workers, managed to free the man but he was declared dead at the scene.