Two dead after scaffolding collapses
Scaffolding at the construction site of a giant statue of a Buddhist monk in Chumphon province collapsed last night, killing two workers and injuring five others.
Police interviewed the foremen in charge of the construction, because it is believed a wrong order might have been responsible for the collapse. Watcharin Suwaphis, a senior official with tambon Saphlee administrative organisation, said the accident might have been caused by a foreman ordering that part of the image be demolished before the concrete had dried.
The image, portraying the highly-revered late Luang Poo Song Janthasara, is believed to be the tallest statue of a Buddhist monk in Thailand, standing at 19 metres high and 15 metres wide.
The body of one worker, identified merely as Keng, was found trapped underneath the structure and was being retrieved at press time. The other worker, pronounced dead in hospital, was identified as 51-year-old Wannasak Raksaphol.
The image is about 70-per-cent complete and the construction is five months into the six-month deadline.
Luang Poo Song was a renowned preacher and the abbot of Wat Jao Fa Sala Loi in Pathiu district, where the image is being built. He died on August 2, 1983, at age 94, and had been the abbot of the temple since 1919.
