Worker killed after shop roof collapses during renovation in Garmian

KALAR — A construction worker was killed after the roof of a shop collapsed while he was carrying out renovation work in the Rizgari district of Garmian, Sulaymaniyah governorate, on Saturday.

Soran Mohammed Gharib, spokesperson for Garmian Police, told 964media that the incident occurred in a Rizgari market while the worker was renovating a shop.

The collapse occurred at about 11 a.m., Gharib said. The worker was taken to Shahid Hajar Emergency Hospital in Kalar, where medical staff attempted to save him, “but he died due to the severity of his injuries.”

Police identified the victim as a 46-year-old resident of Garmian. Authorities have opened an investigation into the incident, Gharib said.

The fatality is the latest in a series of workplace accidents reported in the Kurdistan Region in the recent years. On July 10, 2025, one worker was killed and five others were injured when a building collapsed in Sulaymaniyah’s Raparin neighborhood. Two days later, three workers were injured after part of a mosque roof collapsed during construction in Piramagrun, a subdistrict northwest of Sulaymaniyah city.

24 workers had died in the Kurdistan Region from the start of the year up to May 1, a labor union official said, as workers marked International Workers’ Day. Osman Zindani, head of the construction workers’ union in Sulaymaniyah, told 964media that the deaths occurred across the region in the first four months of the year.

Workers’ organizations often attributed many of the fatalities to inadequate safety standards, lack of protective equipment and insufficient training.