Accident: A 73-year-old man died yesterday after a wall collapsed and buried him near Deki School in Thimphu.  He was cleaning a drain by the roadside around 2.30pm when the incident occurred.

Emergency physician at the Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital, Dr Sona Pradhan, said he was brought dead to the emergency unit.

She said, health workers did cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and intubation but could not revive him.

Dr Sona Pradhan said he could have died of suffocation, since he was buried under stones, and had also suffered multiple rib fractures.

A health worker said they were informed some 25 minutes after the incident. “If they had called us sooner, we may have been able to help him,” he said. “We reached the site in two minutes after receiving a call from one of the workers.”

The health worker added that the stone wall was loosely built and had a car park running over the wall.

Meanwhile, a thromde official said it was too early to comment on the quality of the wall, but the thromde will look into the case.

Thromde officials suspect the weight of the cars at the parking could have pushed the wall to collapse.

The deceased, Amrit Bdr Rai is from Dorokha, Samtse and had been working with the thromde for more than 20 years.  He was the sole bread earner in the family.

By Dechen Tshomo