DOHA: Organisers of the 2022 World Cup finals in Qatar are investigating the death of an Indian construction worker at one of its sites.

Qatar has come under heabvy pressure fron international trades unions and human rights groups over labour abuses and has been urged by world federation FIFA to step up the pace of improvements under scrutiny from a monitoring panel.

Jaleshwar Prasad, 48, was taken unconscious on Wednesday while undertaking steel work at Al Bayt stadium in Al Khor, some 30 miles north of Doha. However organisers have insisted the death was not due directly to working conditions.

A statemeng from the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy said: “Al Khor Hospital reported the cause of death as cardiac arrest. The family of Mr Prasad were informed of the tragedy immediately. A full investigation is underway.”

About 5,100 construction workers from Nepal, India and Bangladesh are building stadiums in the country.

Prasad would be the third Indian employed on a World Cup site to die of a heart attack in the last six months, based on a February report by the Supreme Committee.

Qatar’s Supreme Committee says there have been no work-related fatalities on World Cup sites, but law firm DLA Piper, in a review for the government in 2013, found evidence of dozens of work-related deaths generally in the state among Asian migrant labourers.

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