Building Collapses at Saudi University, Killing 7 Workers

Seven workers, including an Egyptian engineer, were killed Monday when the roof of a building they were working on collapsed at a university campus in Saudi Arabia, civil defense authorities and a diplomat said. A civil defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed to The Associated Press that the death toll had climbed from four to seven people. He said that six workers were injured and at least two still missing under the rubble. Ashraf Shiha, consul at Egypt's Embassy in Saudi Arabia, told the AP that an Egyptian engineer is among the dead. A civil defense statement said the incident took place on the campus of al-Qassim University in the city of Buraydah. The statement said some 50 workers were at the site at the time, without elaborating on their status. The statement did not disclose the nationalities of the dead and missing workers. Most of the kingdom's laborers hail from South Asian countries like Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. AP