Two die after walkway collapses at shoe factory in Cambodia

Story highlights

NEW: The accident happened at a factory that makes shoes for a Japanese company

Two people were killed and six injured after a concrete platform fell, police say

The garment industry is in focus after a devastating building collapse in Bangladesh

Kampong Speu, Cambodia CNN  — 

Two people died after a raised concrete walkway collapsed Thursday at a shoe factory warehouse in Cambodia, police said.

Six other people were injured by the fallen walkway in a warehouse adjoining the factory, which is south of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, said National Police Spokesman Kirt Chantharith.

More people could still be buried in the rubble, he said, but he added that it doesn’t appear that dozens of people are trapped. Police are investigating the cause of the collapse.

The deaths at the Cambodian facility come as safety conditions in the garment industry in Asia are under scrutiny following the devastating collapse of a nine-story building housing textile factories in Bangladesh last month. That disaster killed 1,127 people.

At the scene of Thursday’s accident at the Wing Star Shoe Co. factory, rescue workers hauled away chunks of concrete from the wreckage.

Shoes made by the Japanese sports apparel company Asics were in evidence at the factory.

Asics confirmed that its products were made there but said it was still trying to gather all the facts about the collapse. The company said it was sorry to hear about the loss of life in the accident.

One of the people killed was a 22-year-old man named Reom Saroun, said his uncle, Reom Rorn.

Eight members of the family all worked at the factory, Reom Rorn said. They live in the village where it is situated.

He said had never occurred to him that such an accident could happen at the facility.

“But now I am concerned that it will happen again,” he said.

Nonetheless, he and other family members plan to return to work.

“It’s a job,” he said, noting that the part of the factory where he works doesn’t have the upper level that collapsed in the warehouse and killed his nephew.

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CNN’s Junko Ogura in Tokyo contributed to this report.