At least two people have been killed and more than nine injured after the concrete ceiling of a small shoe factory collapsed near the Cambodian capital city of Phnom Penh, media reports citing local officials said on Thursday.
The incident occurred at a shoe factory owned by the Taiwanese company Wing Star Shoes in Kampong Speu province, west of Phnom Penh, as work was progressing there on Thursday morning.
The cause of the accident is yet to be determined. Nevertheless, unconfirmed media reports indicated that the weight of some heavy equipment stored on the roof might have caused it to collapse.
It has been confirmed that no one remains trapped under the collapsed roof as rescue workers have finished combing the debris for survivors and the dead. However, officials feared that the death toll may rise further as three of the injured were in critical condition.
Thursday's accident comes less than a month after a garment factory collapse in Bangladesh killed more than 1,125 people. Following that disaster, top global retailers have joined hands to improve building safety standards in the South Asian nation.
Incidentally, the garment industry is among the biggest employers in Cambodia, providing work for some 500,000 people. The industry alone shipped goods worth more than $4 billion to the U.S. and Europe in 2012.
In the wake of the recent disaster in Bangladesh, multi-national companies have been eying Cambodia as possible alternate source for procuring their goods, mainly because of the low wages. Nevertheless, the minimum monthly wages for those employed in Cambodia's garment industry was raised earlier this month from $61 to $75.
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