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Birmingham wall collapse: Investigation continues into recycling plant deaths as victims identified

An investigation is continuing to establish whether any criminal liability exists for a wall collapse at a recycling plant which crushed five workers to death, a coroner has heard.

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A team of 20 detectives is piecing together what happened when the men were buried under tons of rubble at Hawkeswood Metal in Birmingham on the morning of July 7.

Inquests for the dead, four of whom were from Gambia and one of whom was Senegalese, were opened and adjourned at the city coroner's court on Wednesday.

  • MORE: All five Birmingham wall collapse bodies recovered after painstaking operation

The detective leading a joint police and Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation gave an update on the "complexities" of the inquiry and said: "It's an investigation to establish where there is criminal liability."

Senior coroner for Birmingham and Solihull Louise Hunt said it was clear it would take some time to conclude and adjourned the inquest to a future date.

Detective Inspector Harry Harrison, of West Midlands Police, told the coroner the recycling plant in Aston Church Road, which has been sealed off since the incident, could be handed back to Hawkeswood Metal Recycling as early as Thursday.

He said a sixth man who suffered a broken leg in the collapse has been discharged from hospital after treatment.

Emergency services working at the recycling plant

Mr Harrison said: "Documentation has been seized from the company offices and statements taken from those on site at the time. Liaison with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has commenced."

He said the dead were formally identified through Interpol protocols on disaster victim identification.

Mr Harrison added: "Cause of death was multiple injuries consistent with the mechanism of death."

More details about the victims emerged at the brief hearing, including confirmation they were all married, working men who had arrived in the UK from Spain, and had been living in Birmingham.

The identities were taken from fingerprint records held with passport details by immigration authorities in Spain.

The five were formally identified as the Senegalese man, Ousmane Kaba Diaby, 39, of Aston Lane; Almano Kinteh Jammeh, 45, of Aston Lane; Bangally Tunkara Dukaray, 55, of Holyrood Grove; Saib Sumbundu Sillah, 42, of Ashbourne Road; and Mahamadou Jagana Jagana, 49, of Norman Street - who would have celebrated his 50th birthday six days after he was killed.

Concluding the inquest, Ms Hunt said: "Given this is a very complex investigation, I plan to adjourn. Normally, I would fix a date but I'm not planning to do so. I am conscious it will take some time for the investigation to conclude."

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