The death toll from the collapse of a Moscow market roof has reached at least 64, with 22 people still hospitalised, an official with the Russian emergencies ministry said early on Saturday.
Rescuers have retrieved 63 bodies from the rubble of the market where the roof collapsed on Thursday, and one more person died in hospital, the Interfax news agency quoted the official as saying.
Russian authorities on Friday pressed manslaughter charges on the market’s director, Moscow public prosecutor Anatoli Zuev said.
The market building, which first opened in the mid-1970s, was designed by Nodar Kancheli, the architect who drafted the plans for a huge indoor swimming pool where a roof collapse — after days of heavy snow — left 28 people dead two years ago.
Investigators are looking at several possible causes of Thursday’s roof collapse, including structural code violations and criminal negligence in inspections of the facility, but the possibility of basic design flaws is being examined ”with utmost attention”, the website Gazeta.ru said. — Sapa-AFP