At least six construction workers were reportedly killed and several others injured when a crane collapsed at the construction site for a Chinese-run steel factory in Pluak Daeng district of Rayong on Friday.
The incident happened at the construction site of the six-storey Sin Ker Yuan factory in tambon Tasit, said police who were alerted at around 4.30pm. Some news outlets reported seven fatalities, while Amarin TV reported that 20 workers were injured, but the latter figure has not been confirmed.
Rescue workers rushed to the scene but they were unable to bring out the bodies of the dead victims and the injured after migrant workers gathered to demand the factory owner pay 5 million baht in compensation to the family of each victim.
Police were negotiating with the protesting workers to allow rescue workers to bring out the bodies of the dead victims and take the injured workers to local hospitals.
The exact cause of the accident was not yet known.
(Screen grab from Amarin TV)