According to Melaka Tengah district police chief Christopher Patit, the incident occurred at 6pm and a Bangladeshi man known as Jidan, 22, was found stuck in a gap under the rubble of a concrete pillar at the site, Bernama reported.

“The victim was detected under the collapsed structure at 9.55pm but fire and rescue teams were only able to recover the body from the rubble just after midnight.

“The two survivors, Zubair Ahmed, 32, and Abbas Ghulam, 49, both Pakistani nationals, suffered injuries in several parts of the body, including the neck, shoulder and head. They were safely pulled out of the rubble at 6.40pm and 8.45pm, respectively,” he was quoted as saying

Patit added that the two survivors were sent to Melaka Hospital for treatment.

In the meantime, the deputy director of the state fire and rescue department, R Saiful Iswandy R Hassan said his team got a call about the incident at 6.18pm and a total of 81 personnel from the Padang Temu and Melaka Tengah stations , as well as 35 members of the Special Forces Tactical Rescue Operations (STORM) arrived at the scene about 10 minutes later.

“The rescue team managed to remove the victims from the rubble of a one-storey building structure which is still under construction,” he said.