THE families of five men who died while working at Hawkeswood Metal Recycling in Birmingham have rejected an inquest ruling that the tragedy was accidental.

Almamo Jammeh, Ousman Diaby, Bangally Dukuray, Saibo Sillah and Mahamadou Jagana were killed when an 11.8ft concrete partition fell on them in July 2016.

Today, a jury found that the “foreseeable risk” of the incident had not been identified, a failure which “caused or contributed” to the deaths.

The families vowed to continue seeking justice and urged “immediate steps” to prevent any repetition of the incident.

A spokesman for the families, Lang Dampha, said: “No-one expects to go to work to die. We never imagined this would happen, but we now know why it did.

“We believe it was because of obvious and serious failings by the company that ran the workplace. We believe that they thought of our loved ones as cheap labour and didn’t really care if they lived or died.

“The company and its directors should face the full force of the legal system and not be allowed to get away with what has happened. They should face criminal prosecution.”