American and Turkish workers was trapped in boiler

The 19-year-old Turkish man, of Rotterdam, was freed at about 3.30am on Monday after a hole was cut open in the side of the boiler at the Amercentrale power plant. German rescue workers had previously abseiled into the structure to stabilise the scaffolding above the man with steel cables.

Despite suffering from several broken bones, the man’s condition is considered stable and he has been taken to hospital for observation and treatment.

A fourth trapped worker has been located at about the same height (20m above ground), but is on the other side of the boiler. Work has started on freeing him via the same method, but it is not certain whether he is still alive.

Rescue workers had initially established contact with the man, but there has been no sign of life from him since Sunday, an NOS news report said.

A total of eight men were buried under collapsed scaffolding at about 1am on Sunday while they were cleaning the 85m tall and 17m wide boiler.

Two Americans, who were only lightly wounded in the accident, were rescued relatively easily and taken to hospitals in Breda and Oosterhout. One of them has since been released from hospital and the other one is said to be in a good condition.

Besides the third and fourth victims, four other men are still trapped beneath the wreckage and their location has not yet been determined. Rescue workers are trying to make contact with the men via mobile phones and drilling holes in the side of the boiler to locate their position, but have not received any indications that they are still alive.

The eight men are believed to be four Turkish and four US nationals. They were working to clean the boiler, which was not in use at the time, when the scaffolding collapsed. The landing scaffolding was located 65m above ground and fell about 20m, Dutch associated press ANP reported.

All eight victims were employed by an external business that gas and electricity company Essent had contracted in to carry out the maintenance work at its Amercentrale power plant in Geertruidenberg. The work is necessary every couple of years.

Four men were working higher up in the boiler and four were working down below when the scaffolding collapsed from underneath. Essent production director Aad Atteveld refused to speculate on Sunday about the cause of the accident and the full extent of the damage: "We first want to rescue the victims".

But rescue operations are expected to continue for several days and the Geertruidenberg Mayor Matthieu Meijer said the wreckage was akin to a pile of jackstraws because the scaffolding had collapsed into and on top of itself, making the search for victims a complex operation.