New Commonwealth crisis: arena ceiling collapses.

Sky News

The Commonwealth Games in India have been thrown into more chaos after a ceiling fell in at the weightlifting arena - a day after a footbridge collapsed, injuring 27 people.

The latest calamity comes as Scotland said it was delaying sending its athletes to Delhi over health and safety fears.

In another development, Mike Fennell, the Games' federation chief, announced he was travelling to the Indian capital for emergency talks.


Some of the world's top athletes have already pulled out amid widespread anger over India's last-minute preparations for the Games, which are due to start in 11 days.

Buildings are unfinished, two structures have now collapsed at the main stadium, and the athlete's village is said to be filthy.

On Monday, 27 people were injured - five critically - when a footbridge linking a parking area with the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium collapsed.

In another embarrassment, a false ceiling came down on Tuesday at the stadium's 2,500-capacity weighlifting arena.No-one was injured.

The shooting of two foreign visitors by suspected militants combined with a dengue fever epidemic, heavy monsoon rains, delayed construction, and traffic chaos have only added to the fears.

Michael Cavanagh, chairman of Commonwealth Games Scotland, told Sky News he had decided to delay sending his team because Indian officials "hadn't done enough to make the athletes' village safe."

He said he had spoken to the chiefs of other countries taking part and they all had the same concerns.

But he added: "We're doing everything in our power to make sure Scotland goes to the Games."

England's participation has also been thrown into doubt with officials demanding guarantees about safety.

Around 8,000 athletes from Britain and its former colonies are due to take part in the competition.

Triple-jumper Phillips Idowu pulled out citing "safety concerns", as has Australia's discus world champion Dani Samuels - and more top stars are expected to follow.

Samuels said: "I believe there are too many potential hazards to my health and life."

The Australian government has said it is confident India can sort out the problems in time - but admits there are concerns about the safety of its athletes.

Sky News Australia correspondent Ian Woods said there have been direct threats against Australian sportsmen in retaliation at the racist attacks on Indian students in Melbourne.

Sky News sports editor Nick Powell said if more big names do pull out, and the problems get worse, it could spell the end of the Commonwealth Games. The next are due to take place in Glasgow in 2014.

India has had seven years to prepare for the competition.

The event was due to be its 'coming out' party in the same way as the 2008 Olympics were for China.

"Fingers crossed, India may pull off a miracle," said Boria Majumdar, a sports historian who wrote the book Sellotape Legacy: Delhi and the Commonwealth Games.

"But it will have to be a miracle. No doubt about that."

India has some amazing and beautiful buildings and the country itself was steeped in culture while we here in the west were thowing stones at mammoths, but they have caught the "profit above all else" bug that has ruined our economy. Sadly they have no stringent building regulations as we have, or if they have them, then they ignore them.

Great to see how well its caught the publics imagination !! They didn't need to build all those 'unfinished' facilities.They could have played them out at the local park in front of One man and his Rat.

The organisers should think seriously in future about giving these events to third world countries that use child labour to build their facilities.
No doubt some serious money has changed hands.

Lioned wrote:Great to see how well its caught the publics imagination !! They didn't need to build all those 'unfinished' facilities.They could have played them out at the local park in front of One man and his Rat.

The organisers should think seriously in future about giving these events to third world countries that use child labour to build their facilities.
No doubt some serious money has changed hands.

I saw an Indian arc welder on the news over the weekend welding without any gloves, protective clothing or head mask, just holding the darkened welding glass in front of his eyes with one hand. Small wonder they can produce goods at fraction of the cost here in the UK if they are not providing the appropriate safety gear as is required by law here in Europe.

Someone is making big bucks by exploiting the Asian workforce, doubtlessly the same people who appear on our news channels saying that we need continued open immigration of Asian workers.

I wrote a paper once on Green Computing. Did you know that a lot of E-waste gets shipped to India and Pakistan for "recycling". That means it gets smelted - i.e. burned - over open fires, by sometimes quite small children, to burn off the plastic and extract the valuable copper and gold from the circuits. They do this with no protective equipment whatsover, so as well as the risk of burns, they are breathing in all these toxic chemicals and fumes. Some of the computers I saw getting burned had local authority stickers on them!!!

The Famous Grouse wrote:I wrote a paper once on Green Computing. Did you know that a lot of E-waste gets shipped to India and Pakistan for "recycling". That means it gets smelted - i.e. burned - over open fires, by sometimes quite small children, to burn off the plastic and extract the valuable copper and gold from the circuits. They do this with no protective equipment whatsover, so as well as the risk of burns, they are breathing in all these toxic chemicals and fumes. Some of the computers I saw getting burned had local authority stickers on them!!!

A couple of years ago, I was standing outside a school building having a chat and a ciggie with another teacher, when there was suddenly a very loud crashing sound. I looked round and saw computers being chucked into a large skip. I knew these computers weren't very old and I mentioned to the technician who was heaving them into the skip that a friend was running a charity that provided computers for disabled children and could they, perhaps, be passed on. I was told that this would definitely not be allowed. Such a waste.

AnnaEsse wrote:

The Famous Grouse wrote:I wrote a paper once on Green Computing. Did you know that a lot of E-waste gets shipped to India and Pakistan for "recycling". That means it gets smelted - i.e. burned - over open fires, by sometimes quite small children, to burn off the plastic and extract the valuable copper and gold from the circuits. They do this with no protective equipment whatsover, so as well as the risk of burns, they are breathing in all these toxic chemicals and fumes. Some of the computers I saw getting burned had local authority stickers on them!!!

A couple of years ago, I was standing outside a school building having a chat and a ciggie with another teacher, when there was suddenly a very loud crashing sound. I looked round and saw computers being chucked into a large skip. I knew these computers weren't very old and I mentioned to the technician who was heaving them into the skip that a friend was running a charity that provided computers for disabled children and could they, perhaps, be passed on. I was told that this would definitely not be allowed. Such a waste.

I briefly watched a bit of a documentary on a friends TV yesterday where the camera crew were filming secretly from a car in a village in China. It showed the whole community stripping vast piles of old imported PCs and other electrical components in order to collect the gold, copper, silver and other precious metals used in their construction. They were using children to burn off the plastics over open fires and the entire village area was covered in smashed equipment and wreathed in thick blue/grey smoke. It makes a mockery of the EU policies on Health and Safety and Greenhouse Gases commitment when Chinese policies are encouraging a return to the he disorganised pollution and exploitation of the early industrial revolution. All this reclamation could be done safely and correctly here in Europe. But of course, in order to work safely and appropriately would be uneconomical and not cost effective.