GERMANY: Rescue workers at a collapsed German ice rink have pulled the body of a girl from the wreckage -- bringing the death toll to 14.

Record ID: 216575

  • Title: GERMANY: Rescue workers at a collapsed German ice rink have pulled the body of a girl from the wreckage -- bringing the death toll to 14.
  • Date: 4th January 2006
  • Summary: WIDE OF CRANES AND RESCUE WORKERS REMOVING PARTS OF THE ROOF
  • Embargoed: 19th January 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVA32PGFNN810RQCDGUF4XN1CLF
  • Story Text: Rescue workers at a collapsed German ice rink pulled the bodies of three more victims from the wreckage on Wednesday (January 4), bringing the confirmed death toll to 14, officials said.
    One person was still missing and thought to be trapped inside the structure, which collapsed on Monday (January 2) afternoon amid heavy snowfall. Officials held out little hope that they would be found alive.
    "It's bad, yesterday evening and today we had hoped that it would be quicker, but it is so difficult to work like this, it is so dangerous. We keep having to remove girders and to try to make the roof as light as possible so that the rescue workers aren't placed in danger," said Fire Service spokesman Rudi Seif.
    With snow and the weight of wreckage hampering rescuers working with cranes and sniffer dogs, efforts to clear the rubble and recover the last of the missing have been repeatedly interrupted while officials check the site's safety, said Seif.
    "At the moment we are using special lifting equipment to support the roof so that it is safe for the rescue workers to search for the missing people," said Seif.
    "At the moment it is quiet, two of the search dogs have indicated that in a certain area where there is a lot of snow, that there could be another person. So we are searching feverishly in the hope that we can free this person."
    Of the 14 bodies recovered so far, most were children or teenagers on school holidays. All came from the area around Bad Reichenhall, a Bavarian town close to the Austrian border.
    The remains of structural supports and other building elements have been secured and labelled so that they could be used in an investigation. Residents say there had been problems in the past.
    "Sometimes we had problems with bumps in the ice where water dripped from the roof, not sure. But what could have caused it I couldn't say one hundred percent," said a member of the local ice hockey team, Cengiz Oztunc.
    "They didn't take hints seriously. I can only speak about the swimming pool, but it is just as bad there, the ice rink roof is even higher and probably had a heavier burden. But in the swimming pool I had already thought that people avoided certain lengths because water permanently dripped down on one from the ceiling," said Gisela Peter, who lives in the town.
    The roof of the ice rink collapsed at around 4 p.m. (1500 GMT) on Monday afternoon while around 50 people, many of them children, were in the arena.
    Masses of heavy snow had built up on the roof of the structure and prosecutors are looking at whether to file criminal charges in connection with the case.

    cw/os
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