A Portuguese man is one of three people killed when scaffolding fell 60 metres (200 feet) from a construction site in Mallet, on the outskirts of Lausanne. Around 40 workers, most of them Portuguese and Albanian, were on site at the time of the tragedy, sending shock waves through the Portuguese community in Switzerland.
Shortly after the accident, it was acknowledged that two Portuguese had died, but the Secretary of State for Portuguese Communities, José Cesário, later confirmed that one Portuguese had died and another was seriously injured.
The Portuguese appear to have dual citizenship, as Vaud police spokesman Jean-Christophe Sauterel said the dead were “a 43-year-old Swiss, a 35-year-old Cape Verdean and a 30-year-old Frenchman.”
Without giving the nationalities of the wounded, Jean-Christophe Sauterelle added that eight people were injured, six of whom were hospitalized, four seriously. Authorities admit that there may be more victims among the rubble, which had not yet been completely cleared by the end of Friday.
The Vaud prosecutor’s office has opened a criminal case to establish the circumstances and causes of the incident. Swiss newspaper Le Temps reported that the accident at 8:25 a.m. (Lisbon time) may have been caused by a freight elevator falling from the 13th floor, dragging workers who were on the scaffolding.