Five agency workers at a metal recycling site were crushed to death when a 45-tonne wall of a storage area holding 263 tonnes of metal briquettes collapsed, a health and safety trial has heard.

Birmingham Crown Court was told the weight of metal, stored at a scrapyard in the Nechells area of the city, was equivalent to about six fully laden articulated lorries.

Labourers Almamo Jammeh, 45, Ousmane Diaby, 39, Bangally Dukuray, 55, Saibo Sillah, 42, and Mahamadou Jagana, 49, were pronounced dead at the scene in July 2016.

The Health and Safety Executive is prosecuting Birmingham-based firms Ensco 10101 and Hawkeswood Metal Recycling as well as directors Wayne Hawkeswood and Graham Woodhouse for alleged safety failings.

Opening the case on Friday, prosecutor Pascal Bates told jurors: “This case is about whether the defendants should on each count be found guilty of safety failings in respect of a scrapyard – safety failings which led to five men losing their lives.

“Mr Wayne Anthony Hawkeswood was the owner of both companies and he was the managing director of each of them.

“On July 7 2016 a gang of men were at work in the scrapyard and were given the job of clearing out a storage area.”

The court was told the men were working to clear swarf – waste from machining processes – ahead of an incoming load of scrapped aero engines.

Mr Bates added: “The bay which was to be cleared was one of a row of four along the southern side of the site.”

Bay four contained swarf, the court heard, while the adjacent bay 3 was “filled” with around 263 tonnes of machine-pressed, can-shaped metal briquettes, each weighing around 4kg.

All those killed were originally from west Africa and held either Spanish or Portuguese passports.

Describing the collapse, Mr Bates told the court: “At just after 8.34 that morning, some 15 minutes after the agency workers first go to bay four, the wall between bays three and four topples over into bay four.

“It fell as a complete ‘slate’ – a 45-tonne wall has been pushed over by 263 tonnes of briquettes into the neighbouring bay.

“The experts are agreed that the wall was very close to toppling over.”

The court heard that an expert who assessed the site believed that rain falling on the briquettes, or a gust of wind, could have prompted the wall to collapse.

Mr Bates added: “The prosecution say that whatever straw broke the camel’s back is neither here nor there.

“The wall was decidedly unsafe in its state and no one should have been working anywhere near it.”

Those killed had died immediately, the court heard.

Mr Bates said a sixth worker suffered a broken leg, another escaped injury after stepping outside the bay, while a supervisor sustained cuts and bruises in a mini digger after its cab shielded him.

Ensco 10101 denies failing to discharge a duty to a person other than an employee in July 2016, and failing to ensure the health and safety of its employees.

Hawkeswood Metal Recycling has pleaded not guilty to a charge alleging that it failed in its duty to those not in its employment, and a second count relating to the safety of employees.

Managing director Hawkeswood and site operations manager Woodhouse, both of Riverside Works, Trevor Street, Nechells, have each pleaded not guilty to four charges under the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act, including allegations that an “offence was committed with your consent or connivance or was attributable to your neglect”.

The court heard that Woodhouse, 55, was working on July 7 2016, while 52-year-old Hawkeswood was on the first day of a foreign holiday.

The trial continues, and is expected to run for eight weeks.

My husband and I hiked some of the most famous trails, but we also explored off-the-beaten-path locations that were crowd-free and visually stunning.

McGarvey’s last game for Celtic was the 1985 Scottish Cup final against Dundee United.

A barrister representing an alleged victim said the ‘implication’ of what Judge Marc Marin said was ‘only stupid women can be raped’.

Joshua Tilt, who worked in a British Transport Police force control room, is accused of misconduct in a public office.

Haji Choudhary Rab Nawaz was described as a ‘shining light of good’ by his family.

This obsession with her face is just another way of policing women’s bodies and how we present ourselves to the world

A Mexican man fatally shot at a U.S. Border Patrol station in Texas had grabbed an “edged weapon” and was advancing toward agents when they opened fire, the FBI said Thursday. Manuel Gonzalez-Moran, 33, died at an El Paso hospital Tuesday after he was shot by Border Patrol agents. The FBI said Moran was taken into custody at the Ysleta Border Patrol Station for reentering the country illegally.

On one side, oceans of wealth and power. On the other, precarity and powerlessness. But we have the tools for reform

John Vincentini accused of harassing driver as he tried to make deliveries in Lacey Township

From Yellowstone in Wyoming to the Redwood forests of California, I've seen some of the most beautiful sights and landscapes America has to offer.

A new Line of Duty-style anti-corruption command is to be set up by Scotland Yard to root out officers suspected of racism, misogyny and corruption.

The Kerch bridge, symbol of Russia’s occupation of the Crimean peninsula, was hit at dawn the day after the president’s birthday

Sacred Tum Tacos made a surprising announcement on social media today telling customers that they would be shutting the doors of their Southside shop.

Verstappen finished third in second practice on Friday but dismissed the significance of wet weather running with dry conditions expected for qualifying

The Canadian economy added 21,000 jobs in September, Statistics Canada reported on Friday, snapping a three month losing streak. But one economist says it doesn't represent a 'true' re-acceleration in employment.

A GROUP of older ladies who became “great friends” after forming a weekly Zoom call during the Covid-19 pandemic have met up for the first time.

An Australian safari park is celebrating a “baby boom”, welcoming what it called a stampede of new arrivals over the past week.A Przewalski’s horse foal, an emu and a zebra foal were all born at Monarto Safari Park within the past seven days, Zoos South Australia said in a press release.Those new arrivals join two giraffe calves, five addax calves, five eland calves, two cheetah cubs, four greater bilby joeys, one spotted hyena, and three African lion cubs which were also born at Monarto recently.The director of the park, Peter Clark, said: “Spring is definitely here! Even the native animals around the park, like our resident emus, have had little ones running around."Clark said more than 70 percent of species at the park are threatened in the wild. “It is incredibly special to see their numbers thriving,” he said. Credit: Zoos South Australia via Storyful

Around 25 supporters of Just Stop Oil took part in the action on Friday morning.

Residents in the Ribble Valley are being warned about cold calling gardeners after someone paid £3,000 for just an afternoon's work.

Persons aged 50 and above can be administered up to five vaccine shots including the bivalent vaccine.