(JollofNews) – The bodies of four Gambians and one Senegalese national who were killed on Thursday after a huge concrete wall collapsed on top of them at a Birmingham recycling plant have been recovered.
The 15ft tall wall, made of heavy concrete blocks, came crashing down on the men as they laboured at the Shredmet site in Aston Church Road, Nechells.
A sixth man miraculously managed to escape, digging his own way out of the rubble despite his leg having been broken.
The bodies of Saibou Sillah, 42, a married father of seven children, including two-year-old twins, from Edgbaston, Almamo Jammeh, 42 and Bangaly Tunkara (Dukureh), and Ousman Jabbie, from Aston, and Mohammed Jagana, a married father-of-one from Winson Green, Birmingham, have been taking to a mortuary in Coventry.
Although relatives wanted the bodies recovered for burial as soon as possible, in accordance with Muslim custom, authorities want to conduct a forensic post-mortem examination on Monday.
Det Supt Mark Payne, of West Midlands Police, said some identification “may not be straightforward” and DNA methods maybe used.
He said officers were in contact with all of the families and the coroner’s office “to take the families through the next stage of the process”.
“Today we will be carrying out the final stages of the search and making everything safe,” he said.
“Then we will work with the HSE [Health and Safety Executive] to see exactly what the cause of this incident was. Then we will take appropriate action once we know.”
