At least 14 people were killed and several more injured when the roof of a public swimming pool collapsed in the Urals region of Russia, officials said early on Monday.
Of the 14 victims, 10 were children between nine and 12-years-old, said local emergency ministry official Anatoly Shinakov. Four women were also killed in the accident.
Earlier officials said that only eight bodies had been found, but then ”two more bodies — those of a woman and a girl — were recovered from underneath the ruined roof that fell into the pool,” Shinakov said.
The eight bodies that had been recovered earlier had already been identified, Shinakov said.
”Only a little part of” the 100sq metre roof, which collapsed on Sunday at the municipal pool in Chusovoi, a town near the city of Perm in the Ural mountains, ”is yet to be cleared away, this is the hardest part, but will be only an hour of work,” Shinakov said.
Up to 30 people could have been in the pool at the time of the accident, officials said.
Of the 11 people who were rescued at the time of accident, eight were rushed to a hospital with various injuries, and three received treatment at the pool.
Officials did not immediately give a reason for the collapse. An abrupt change in the weather which brought heavy snowfalls was thought to be a possibility.
Local prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation.
In February 2004, 28 people died and almost 200 were hurt in a collapse at a water park in Moscow. The design of the building was blamed. – Sapa-AFP