Dozens injured, trapped in skyscraper

AP

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – A highrise apartment building under construction in one of Dubai’s new districts caught fire Thursday, with two dozen workers injured and dozens more trapped by thick smoke as rescue crews tried to reach them.

Witnesses said they saw a man fall from one of the 37–story building’s upper floors, and hospital officials said that three hospitalized laborers were in serious condition. There were no official reports of deaths, as police and fire officials refused to comment.

"Some of the workers were trying to climb down on cables. One guy in red was trying to climb down and then he just fell. It was horrible," said Louise Olson, 25, from Denmark, who watched the scene from her whirlpool bath in a highrise that faces the burning tower.

"It was kind of like 9/11," said Steven Wullinger, 35, a German who saw the falling man.

Black smoke billowed from the upper floors of the glass–sheathed building, located in a cluster of apartment towers under construction on Dubai’s southern outskirts.

One man scaling the outside of the building got stuck on a narrow ledge on the 13th floor and was rescued after balancing on his precarious perch for more than an hour. Rescuers eventually smashed windows to pull him to safety.

Trapped workers waved towels at hovering helicopters or climbed toward the roof on scaffolding. Rescuers could be seen carrying injured workers on stretchers and putting them in ambulances.

Witnesses on the street below said the fire broke out around 12:30 (07:30 GMT) and burned for at least an hour before fire trucks arrived on the scene.

Attempts by Dubai’s inexperienced emergency services to extinguish the fire and rescue the trapped workers appeared disorganized.

A rescue helicopter was unable to land on the building’s roof, and firefighters on the ground took hours to start evacuating workers out from a 10th story window, even after most of the smoke had dissipated.

It was not immediately clear why those trapped near the roof were unable to make their way to lower floors.

A hospital official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said up to 25 laborers from India, Pakistan and China were being treated for various degrees of smoke inhalation.