Worker on ventilator after incident at WAMCO facility

A staff member of Waste Management Corporation (WAMCO) was injured in an incident at a company site in Malé and is receiving treatment on a ventilator, police said on Tuesday.

Maldives Police Service said the incident occurred late on Sunday. A photograph circulating on social media on Tuesday shows a man falling into a WAMCO vehicle.

Police said the injured man is being treated at Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) and that investigations are under way. Police did not disclose further details about the incident.

Two days after the incident, the employee remains in a critical condition.

In a message to media outlets, police said a man was injured in an incident that occurred inside a WAMCO site in the city on Sunday evening and that the matter is under investigation.

WAMCO has not issued an official statement on the incident.

According to claims made in a social media post accompanying the photograph, the employee fell from the ramp of a WAMCO vehicle onto a container. The post states there was a height of about 12 to 13 feet between the ramp and the container. It also alleges that the injured person was a company driver and that the incident occurred at around 3.00 pm on Sunday.

The post further claims that employees present at the site were asked not to disclose the incident and that the case was reported to police by the employee’s family.

Attempts to obtain comment from IGMH were unsuccessful, as the hospital’s media officer could not be reached.