GERMANY: Death toll reaches 14 in German ice rink collapse at Bad Reichenhall

Record ID: 216591

  • Title: GERMANY: Death toll reaches 14 in German ice rink collapse at Bad Reichenhall
  • Date: 5th January 2006
  • Summary: WIDE OF CRANES REMOVING RUBBLE
  • Embargoed: 20th January 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVA92229FY3BOHANVZHH27CBNXHF
  • 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.
    A woman is still missing and thought to be trapped inside the structure, which collapsed on Monday afternoon amid heavy snowfall. Officials held out little hope that she would be found alive.
    With snow and the weight of the 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.
    "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," local resident Gisela Peter said.
    Police spokesman Hubertus Andrae said the 14th victim was a girl aged between 12 and 16. The identities of the two others recovered on Wednesday had yet to be confirmed.
    "The identification of the fourteenth victim is happening right now. It is the girl who appears on our missing persons list, aged between twelve and sixteen years. So one more person is missing, a woman. For now there is no particular area we are searching in which means we need to send in sniffer dogs to narrow down the area. We will then look for the missing person by hand."
    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.
    Questions about the causes of the accident swirled amid fears similar disasters could happen elsewhere in the harsh winter weather conditions.
    Bild, Germany's biggest newspaper, carried the headline: "The children could still be alive!" after suggestions that officials should have known the building was unsafe.
    The remains of structural supports and other building elements have been secured and labelled so that they could be used in an investigation.
    The roof of the ice rink collapsed at around 4 p.m. (1500 GMT) on Monday 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. jrc/os
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