Twenty-two dead in Dubai flooding accident

The death toll from an accident at a Dubai shipyard has risen to 22, with seven people still missing, the company said today.

A company statement said search operations were continuing ‘‘but little hope is held out of finding survivors at this stage.’’

Seven people remained in hospital but their injuries were not serious, it said.

The accident happened early yesterday morning, when work on a gate into one of the huge docks caused it to give way, and sea water flooded an area where thousands of people were working.

Those killed and missing are among 3,500 employees - mostly from the Indian subcontinent, Thailand and the Philippines - working at the shipyard, which is one of the biggest in the world and provides maintenance to ships passing through the Gulf region. It also builds small vessels.

Divers, police, civil defence and dry-docks safety officers all continued searching for the missing today. Five ships undergoing work suffered varying degrees of damage.