RUSSIA: People pray in mosque as latest death toll of collapsed Russian market rises to 57.

Record ID: 216480

  • Title: RUSSIA: People pray in mosque as latest death toll of collapsed Russian market rises to 57.
  • Date: 24th February 2006
  • Summary: MEN PRAYING OUTSIDE MOSQUE
  • Embargoed: 11th March 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVAB4S1TFF1WTKUMXEOZK0J9DZFX
  • Story Text: Russian rescue workers said on Friday they had given up hope of
    finding anyone else alive under the rubble of a Moscow market roof that
    collapsed on top of traders, killing 57 people.
    The death toll rose by one overnight after emergency services recovered
    the body of a woman from the wreckage of the Basmanny market in eastern
    Moscow.
    Rescue workers who had been searching with sniffer dogs in the hope of
    finding survivors trapped under the debris were pulled out and replaced by
    excavators who set to work clearing the site.

    Officials of the Emergency Ministry said they did not to expect
    the death toll to further rise as rescue workers believed they had recovered
    all the bodies. Officials said 23 people were still in hospital.
    The collapse occurred in the early hours of the morning, when there
    were no customers but traders were setting up stalls. Some of them were
    asleep. Many of the victims where people from Azerbaijan who work in Moscow to
    support their families back home.
    At Moscow's largest mosque hundreds of people attended the Friday prayers
    to mourn the victims and express support to the relatives of the victims.

    "From the council of Russian muftis and from the spiritual
    board of muslims of European Russian, we express our deepest condolences to
    families and friends of the people who died as a result of the collapsed roof
    in the Basmanny Market. And we express our deep grief," said Mustafa,
    who was leading the prayers.
    President Vladimir Putin has called for a "painstaking
    investigation" to establish why the roof of the building, built in the
    1970s, collapsed. Moscow city officials have blamed the weight of snow on the
    structure, and called for district authorities to make sure that snow gets
    cleared from roofs and buildings. Many roofs in Moscow are covered with a big
    blanket of snow after heavy snow fall on Thursday and Friday night.
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