DUBAI (AFP) - At least eight workers were killed when a wall on a vast construction site at Dubai airport in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) collapsed, Al-Arabiya television reported.
The wall collapsed on the site of Dubai International Airport`s new terminal, an airport source told AFP.
"A wall of a building collapsed and the scaffolding around it then collapsed and workers were buried under the rubble," the source said, without giving details on the casualties.
The Dubai-based satellite news channel Al-Arabiya gave a toll of at least eight dead, while the official WAM news agency only reported "many" casualties.
The airport is currently being expanded at a cost of 4.1 billion dollars to include a third terminal, exclusively for Emirates Airline passengers, as well as a cargo mega-terminal.
The new Emirates terminal, designed by France`s Aeroports de Paris (ADP), will be in the shape of a giant plane wing almost one kilometre (1,100-yards) in length.
Dubai, a tourist and commercial hub, expects to handle annual traffic of about 30 million passengers by 2010 and more than 60 million by 2020.
But with a construction boom in full swing, fatal accidents involving Asian expatriate workers on building sites in Dubai are common, amid concerns over safety standards.