At least 38 people were killed and 29 injured on Thursday when the snow-laden roof of an indoor market in Moscow collapsed, said Artyom Bibilurov, a spokesperson for the emergency situations ministry.
Hours after the roof collapsed, fire appeared to have broken out in the ruins, sending up a thick cloud of acrid smoke and complicating rescuers’ efforts as they searched with sniffer dogs for any surviving victims.
It was unclear how many people could still be trapped under the collapsed roof. Interfax news agency earlier quoted a senior rescue official as saying ”dozens” could still be under the wreckage, while most other reports spoke of about a dozen.
Of the 29 people injured, at least 19 of them were hospitalised, some with serious injuries, while others were treated at the scene.
Russian television broadcast footage of ambulance teams and rescuers working at the scene amid snowfall in the pre-dawn darkness as the temperature hovered around the freezing point.
Echo Moscow radio station said a number of people who had been trapped in the wreckage had used cellphones to call rescuers and family members.
Thursday was a national holiday in Russia but most markets were open for business. The roof collapse however occurred at about 5am (2am GMT) before the market was open to the public at a time when mainly traders and market administrative personnel would have been at the site.
Officials said preliminary investigation suggested that recent heavy snowfall may have played a role in the roof collapse.
Heavy snow was also believed to have caused the collapse last month of an exhibition hall in southern Poland, killing 65 people, as well as an enclosed German ice rink, killing 15 including a dozen children.
Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov was at the scene and a special emergency management team was set up to coordinate rescue and initial investigation efforts.
The roof collapse occurred at the Baumansky market in eastern Moscow, a facility that was designed by the same architect who drafted plans for construction of an aqua park where a similar roof collapse killed 28 people two years ago, according to Russian media.
The architect, Nodar Kancheli, was placed under investigation last year in connection with the collapse of the roof over the Transvaal aquatic park on February 14 2004, also following relatively heavy snowfall.
Echo Moscow said construction of the Baumansky market in Moscow was ”not standard” and consisted of ”a hanging shell of reinforced concrete” that was supported by a system of cables rather than with grounded support columns.
Kancheli told the RIA Novosti news agency that the roof collapse on Thursday was probably due to ”incorrect use” of the building. One report suggested that a platform for housing small shops had been attached to the roof in violation of building codes, placing unplanned strain on it.
”The construction of the roof did not plan for this,” the agency quoted Kancheli as saying. He said that failure to clear the roof of snow may also have contributed to the collapse.
The market has been in operation since 1975.
The Russian prosecutor’s office announced last April that Kancheli was being placed under investigation for the 2004 water park disaster, which was marked by scenes of shivering children in wet swimming suits being pulled out of the wreckage in freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall.
The architect maintained that the incident at the Moscow Transvaal aquatic park was a terrorist attack, coming just after a bombing of a Moscow metro station which killed 41 people.
Luzhkov was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying that Thursday’s collapse was not the result of terrorism.
The Baumansky market covered a surface area of about 2 000 square metres. – AFP
