Two men died tragically yesterday afternoon when the ceiling of a building still under construction in Hamrun gave way, burying them under the wreckage.

The men, a 44-year-old from Siggiewi and a Serbian, who resides in Gwardamangia, were working on a construction site on the corner of Barbara Street and Frans Camilleri Street when the ceiling they were laying gave way.

The accident occurred at around 4.40pm and neighbours who spoke to The Malta Independent said it sounded as if a fireworks factory had exploded. Some even thought that the noise had been caused by an explosion because of the cloud of dust that billowed out of the construction site.

Paramedics, police and a number of members of the Civil Protection Department were at the scene within minutes and were later joined by Armed Forces of Malta personnel, when the concrete that the workmen had been applying started to set.

The ceiling that gave way was the one covering the entrance to the block of apartments that are being built.

Sources said the Maltese man who lost his life was the foreman, who was giving his workmen instructions while they were applying the concrete. The sources said seconds before the accident occurred, the driver of the concrete truck who had just brought the concrete told the foreman to join him for a coffee, to which he replied: “Give me a minute.”

The search and rescue operation took around three-and-a-half hours. Initially, it was believed that more people could have been trapped under the debris. But when the head count was established and finally matched, the operation was called off.

More than 100 people were involved in the operation. The CPD team was headed by director Peter Cordina.

The body of the Maltese man was the first to be found, at about 6.30pm, in part of the building closer to the road. The body of the Serbian national was found further inside the site an hour later.

Duty magistrate Doreen Clarke was on site throughout the entire operation, speaking to people and compiling her magisterial report.

A number of court experts were also at the scene, assisting with the inquiry.

Malta Labour Party Leader Alfred Sant, deputy leaders Michael Falzon and Charles Mangion and secretary-

general Jason Micallef were also on site for a few minutes.