Witness saw man standing on balcony railing before fall

A foreigner who works as an ‘office boy’ for State Trading Organization (STO) reported seeing the man who fell down the Trade Center on Wednesday morning and died, shortly afterwards, standing on top of the railing of the balcony on the fourth floor of the building.

The man who died as been identified as Mohamed Hailam, 35, from M. Enaz in Male’, and is reported to be a mental health patient his family.

The incident took place at around 7:30 am.

An official from STO who spoke to “Sun” confirmed that Hailam wasn’t an employee of the company, but “Sun” has been confirmed from sources that he is a close relative of a senior STO official.

The official from STO who spoke to “Sun” said that the ‘office boy’ had said he had seen Hailam standing on the railing of the fourth floor, but had not witnessed his fall.

“An office boy saw him standing on the railing. But did not see him jump. Only saw him standing,” said the official.

The fourth floor houses offices of STO, Aasandha and Allied Insurance.

Managing Director of STO, Ahmed Shaheer spoke to “Sun” and said that he did not know what happened, and that the only thing he could confirm was that the man who fell down and died wasn’t an employee of STO.

Hailam had fallen from the fourth floor and landed in the vacant space inside the Trade Center which used to house Café Alfresco.

He had suffered critical head injuries in the fall, passing away shortly after he was taken to the hospital.

Police reported that he had a heartbeat when they arrived at the scene.

They are conducting further investigations into the case.