Several workers were killed in a serious accident at a construction site in Hamburg’s Hafencity. The fire department’s information on the number of fatalities fluctuated throughout Monday morning. Around midday, a spokeswoman told the SZ that three people could currently be confirmed dead, one person was seriously injured and one was missing. It is unclear how many injured and missing people there are in total. “An extensive search and rescue effort is underway,” said the spokeswoman. The operation is complex and involves dismantling and security work. The THW is also in action. At its peak, at least 150 helpers have been involved in the work so far, according to the fire department.
Scaffolding fell from the eighth floor into an interior elevator shaft. It is still unclear why the criminal police are investigating. The construction site was cleared; 1,300 to 1,500 people were working there, said a construction manager. Emergency chaplains have been called in to look after the emergency services and eyewitnesses. A crisis intervention team is also in action.
The rubble of the scaffolding is piled up from the basement to the second floor of an elevator shaft. Rescuing the construction workers who are still missing is correspondingly complicated, said a fire department spokesman for the dpa news agency. “The difficulty, of course, is that we have a lot of scaffolding parts here that need to be secured and we have to work our way down to the deployment site, floor by floor.”
Fire brigade emergency vehicles stand in front of a scaffolded high-rise building in Hafencity.
(Photo: Bodo Marks/dpa)
The accident occurred at the construction site for the Überseequartier. A shopping arcade, restaurants, offices and hotels will be built there. The construction site is considered one of the largest in Hamburg. It was evacuated and hundreds of workers were sent home. The fire brigade and the technical relief organization arrived with heavy equipment. The scene of the accident is also considered dangerous for the rescuers themselves.
The Überseequartier is part of Hamburg’s Hafencity, which in turn is considered Europe’s largest inner-city urban development project. The project directly on the Elbe was initiated in the early 1990s by then First Mayor Henning Voscherau (SPD) and, according to Hafencity Hamburg GmbH, covers an area of around 157 hectares. The northern part has been completed since 2019, and work is ongoing in the southern part. The real estate company Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield is reportedly investing more than one billion euros in the total above-ground gross floor area of around 260,000 square meters.