Law college building develops cracks, classes suspended

Cracks in some parts of the College of Law in Wattayeh forced Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) to suspend classes for a week, according to a statement issued by the university today. Cracks on the wall and collapsed ceiling are clearly visible in a video posted on Youtube today. "As soon as the some parts of the College of Law building collapsed and cracks developed the building was evacuated for the safety of all and all classes were cancelled and all pupils were informed to avoid them coming to college,” a statement from SQU stated. Dr. Hamad Bin Sulaiman Al Salmi, SQU Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Administrative and Financial Affairs, said that the classes were suspended in the college for the protection of students and employees at the College and to study conditions of the cracked parts in the building and the possibility of continuing classes. He pointed out that the cracks are in some parts of the college's building not in the whole building. Article continues below SQU Vice Chancellor held an emergency meeting in the presence of a number of SQU officials to discuss the issue. It is decided to suspend classes in the college for one week and assigning the SQU engineering consultant to draft an urgent and detailed report about the condition of the building and how far the remaining parts of the building are affected, in addition to preparing an alternative plan to continue classes on the SQU campus if necessity arises as per the findings of the consultant's report. SQU has immediately notified each of the Civil Defence and the Police Station in Al Wattayeh about the incident. The police and Civil Defence teams took charge and directed what measures to be taken for the safety of all. Al Salmi assured that SQU would carry out thorough inquiry to find out causes of the cracks and collapse and find out who is responsible for this. It is worth mentioning that the College of Law is one of modern colleges that joined SQU colleges as per the Royal Decree No. 55/ 2005. Earlier, it was an independent college affiliated to the Higher Education Ministry. It is believed that the it took eight years to make this building at a cost of about 1.3 million Omani riyals.