1 dead, 7 hurt in US hospital scaffold collapse

One construction worker was killed and seven others were injured after a six-story scaffold collapsed Tuesday in the U.S. state of New Mexico.

The scaffold, outside a medical center in the city of Rio Rancho, buckled and collapsed from the top down, hurting eight workers, including one who died later, according to ABC News reports.

The scaffold had six floors in total and most of the injured were on the fifth when it collapsed.

Nearly 240 workers were at the construction site when the accident happened, officials at Presbyterian Rust Medical Center said, adding that the site is now closed and all workers have been sent home.

The cause of the accident was not immediately known and investigation is under way.