10 workers fall to death at Manila building site

The workers were installing glass windows on a high-rise condominium under construction when the platform gave way, sending them tumbling down from the 32nd to the 7th floor, said Mayor Junjun Binay of the Makati financial district.

A service elevator with construction workers plunged 25 floors at a building site in the Philippine capital on Thursday, killing 10, officials said.

The workers were installing glass windows on a high-rise condominium under construction when the platform gave way, sending them tumbling down from the 32nd to the 7th floor, said Mayor Junjun Binay of the Makati financial district.

He said that one worker was in critical condition.

Police chief Froilan Bonifacio said the deaths on Thursday were a result of a “freak accident.” Mr. Binay ordered the construction halted “until we are sure that the workers there are safe.”

He said it was not immediately clear how many were inside the elevator.

The Philippines, particularly Manila, has been experiencing a construction boom since last year, boosted by low interest rates, the large amount of foreign remittances from nine-million Filipinos working abroad and the need for more office space to accommodate the country’s growing outsourcing industry.