January, 15, 2018
JAKARTA: More than 70 people were injured, and some were seen being carried on stretchers out of the Indonesia Stock Exchange on Monday (Jan 15), after a mezzanine floor collapsed onto the building's lobby.
Police cordoned off the complex as people fled the building, as the injured, including students visiting the building, were taken away by stretcher. Others were seen sitting on steps outside the lobby.
"I can definitely confirm there are no deaths,"director of the Indonesian stock exchange, Tito Sulistio said on Metro TV.
Those hurt mostly had injuries to their legs and arms, Jakarta police spokesman Argo Yuwono said.
"The accident happened at the first floor ... It's a floor where many employees pass through ... There are some victims but they have been taken to a nearby hospital," Yuwono told reporters.
He did not confirm how many people had been hurt in the accident.
Television news footage showed people panicking and screaming as officials tried to evacuate the area amid piles of debris.
A reporter from Metro TV, who was in the building to cover the stock market, said the incident happened shortly after noon.
"There was a loud bang so people who were inside immediately ran outside of the building," said journalist Marlia Zein.
Images circulating on social media showed a mangled metal structure that had collapsed around a Starbucks cafe near the entrance to the lobby.
"Slabs of concrete started to fall and there was lots of dust. Water pipes had burst," said Megha Kapoor, who works in the building and was in the lobby at the time.
"I heard a loud cracking sound. I saw a lady unconscious stuck under slab of concrete," she said, adding that the collapsed level was just above the reception desk.
She said there had been group of high school students on the level when it gave way.
The Indonesia Stock Exchange is located in central Jakarta, and the local office of the World Bank is also housed on the 12th floor of the complex, according to its website.
The building is part of a two-tower complex which was the target of a suicide bombing by Islamist militants in September 2000, but police ruled out a bomb as a cause of Monday's collapse.
The exchange resumed business in the afternoon.
Source: Reuters/AFP/aa/zl
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/floor-at-indonesia-s-stock-exchange-collapses-more-than-70-9862074
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