A 47-year-old migrant worker was killed yesterday after a steel beam from a construction site fell on the man. Strong wind was blamed for the beam falling.

In a separate accident, four people narrowly escaped death after a shed collapsed and fell on a moving car.

The man was killed while he was leaving a construction site for a commercial mansion on Yunling Road E. in Putuo District.

"Management asked all workers to leave the construction site because of the bad weather that brought black clouds and heavy wind," said an engineer, surnamed Li, who witnessed the accident. "A gust of wind blew the beam off the roof and it fell on the worker that happened to be down below."

The victim, surnamed Ling, was under the beam, which fell from 5 meters.

It took 30 minutes for Ling's fellow workers to free him.

He was unconscious when pulled out. He was sent to Putuo District Central Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

The Jiangsu Province native was a steel cutter at the site.

Management suspended all work on site until an investigation of the accident concludes.

About the same time, a temporary shed at a construction site on Qichun Road collapsed in the wind and smashed into a passing car.

The driver and three passengers were unharmed. The shed fell on the front of the vehicle and broke the windshield into pieces.

A steel pipe on the shed pierced the windshield and stopped only a few inches from the head of Shen Wen, who was driving.

"The structure fell from the left of the car. I crouched my body towards the right instinctively. A little bit closer and the pipe would have gone through my head," Shen said.

The collapsed shed was about 6 meters high and nearly 100 square meters large.

Wuyang Construction Group, operator of the site, sent the vehicle for repairs after the accident.

The accident blocked traffic for about two hours.

The anti-flood headquarters office issued a storm and heavy wind warning at 9:15 AM yesterday.

(Shanghai Daily June 28, 2006)