Developer reports worker death on site of Louvre outpost in Abu Dhabi

This 2009 image released by the Human Rights Watch, shows a laborer next a to Saadiyat Island advertising billboard in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (AP / Samer Muscati, Human Rights Watch)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- The developer of a branch of the Louvre being built in the Emirati capital says one of the workers on the project has died in the first such incident on the project.

The government-backed Tourism Development and Investment Company said in a statement Monday that the worker died in June. It did not elaborate on the worker's identity or cause of death.

It says the death is the first fatal incident on the site, where an average 5,500 labourers are employed.

The Louvre is part of an ambitious cultural district in Abu Dhabi known as Saadiyat Island that includes a New York University satellite campus and which will host a branch of the Guggenheim.

The project has drawn scrutiny from activists concerned about the treatment of low-paid migrant workers.