Seven killed in tea warehouse collapse in Colombo

Dunya News

Police said the cause of the accident was still unclear.

COLOMBO (AFP) - The roof of a tea storage facility collapsed Wednesday in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, killing seven workers and wounding two others, police said.

Military personnel were rushed to the private company in the commercial quarter of Grandpass to search for those crushed inside.

Police said the cause of the accident was still unclear but investigations were underway into whether unauthorised extensions had been made to the single-storey building.

The government has earmarked for demolition around 10,000 illegally constructed homes and commercial buildings in Colombo after a seven-storey wedding hall collapsed in May, killing one and wounding 23.

High property prices and the scarcity of buildable land has seen haphazard and illegal construction spike in the city of 750,000 people.

Building collapses are rare in Sri Lanka but concerns are growing about building standards following a construction boom in the aftermath of the island s 37-year-long civil war that ended in 2009.