German authorities said four workers were killed on Friday when scaffolding collapsed on a building site in the southern state of Bavaria. 

Police said the accident happened during work on a concrete ceiling in the small town of Denklingen in Bavaria's Landsberg am Lech district. 

The workers became buried under debris after they fell from the collapsed structure. Police said another worker onsite sustained minor injuries.

Four of the employees worked for a local construction company, police said. 

Mayor Andreas Braunegger said he was "simply shocked" by the incident as he arrived at the local townhall for talks with the victims' families.

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Teenage boy among dead

Among the dead is a 16-year-old boy, a 34-year-old man and two 37-year-old males, local public broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) reported, adding that all four came from region. 

There was no immediate word on the cause of the accident.

According to police spokesman Andreas Aichele, the site of the accident will now be "examined by the criminal investigation department" to determine the cause of the accident, BR reported.

Bavaria's State Criminal Police Office have requested that engineering and construction specialists be deployed to the site.

mvb/rs (dpa, AP)