POLAND: Polish President Lech Kaczynski declares a period of national mourning as death toll in exhibition roof collapse in Chorzow mounts to 66

Record ID: 216532

  • Title: POLAND: Polish President Lech Kaczynski declares a period of national mourning as death toll in exhibition roof collapse in Chorzow mounts to 66
  • Date: 30th January 2006
  • Summary: (W3) KATOWICE, POLAND (JANUARY 29, 2006) (REUTERS) VIEW OF WOMAN INJURED IN THE COLLAPSE LYING IN A HOSPITAL BED, CLOSEUP OF WOMAN'S HAND (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) WOMAN INJURED IN THE COLLAPSE SAYING: "I was so lucky ... the others are still there, my boss's daughter. I was 2 metres away from her, I heard noise and shouts, started running and then I do not remember. I was pull
  • Embargoed: 14th February 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Poland
  • Country: Poland
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVA8E67DEMPFAE5BHOIKNP0MABTN
  • Story Text: Poland said on Sunday (January 29) 66 people were killed when the snow-laden roof of an exhibition centre collapsed in the country's worst disaster in almost two decades.
    After a night in which temperatures reached minus 15 Celsius (5 Fahrenheit), rescue workers on Sunday afternoon began winding down their search for survivors among the rubble.
    Dozens of distraught relatives and survivors gathered near the site to await news of their friends and loved ones who had been attending an event for international pigeon enthusiasts in the southern city of Chorzow when the metal roof of the modern building, the size of a soccer field, collapsed on Saturday.
    About 150 people were injured.
    Nearly 1,000 police, firefighters, soldiers and workers from local mines worked through the night and on Sunday, deploying cutting equipment and thermal imaging gear to search for survivors.
    President Lech Kaczynski said the death toll, which included two children and two foreigners, was unlikely to rise.
    Officials had earlier feared dozens more were trapped, but the regional fire brigade chief said the chances of finding any more people in the wreckage, dead or alive, were close to nil.
    On Sunday a Polish television station broadcast audio of a call made on Saturday (January 28) night to emergency services by a man who said he was trapped underneath the rubble.
    The man said in the call to police at emergency services: "I am all covered in rubble and on top of me there is a woman. I think she is dead."
    Authorities said 14 foreigners were hospitalised in Poland's worst building collapse and its worst disaster of any kind since a Polish airlines jet crashed in 1987 near Warsaw, killing 183.
    Survivors said the toll could have been even worse because there had been between 7,000 to 8,000 people at the show earlier.
    "Thank God there were fewer people there when the roof collapsed than before. Earlier there were crowds," said one man who'd been injured in the accident.
    Two foreigners, a Czech and Belgian, were confirmed among the dead by provincial authorities, although Germany said one German had also been killed and four injured. Injuries were reported among Belgians, Czechs and Slovaks.
    Poland President Lech Kaczynski visited the hospital and said the death toll, which included two children and two foreigners, was unlikely to rise.
    Kaczynski ordered a period of national mourning until Wednesday (February 1). Pope Benedict and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso expressed condolences.
    At the presidential palace in Warsaw, meanwhile, flags were lowered to half mast in respect of the dead.
    As night fell, distraught relatives and survivors still gathered near the site. Many came to lay flowers and light candles.
    Like many of its neighbours Poland is shivering through its coldest winter in decades, with temperatures as low as minus 30C. The cold has killed nearly 200 people in Poland, disrupting transport and gas supplies.
    Earlier this month, 15 people were killed at an ice rink in Germany when a roof collapsed under the weight of snow.
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