30.01.2007

Two die in fall

Two men painting the façade of a building from a suspended platform seven stories up fell over 20 metres to their deaths earlier today when a counterweight malfunctioned.

A local safety inspector said that the suspended platform was similar to those used for window cleaning and was suspended from two roof mounted counterweight systems.

One side malfunctioned allowing the platform to tip sideways dropping the two 34 year olds to their death. Both men came from the Belgian village Hoogstraten

The apartment building is next to a busy road fortunately no pedestrians were injured.
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The accident scene yesterday

An investigation has been launched into what caused the failure.