RUSSIA: Search continues for survivors of Moscow market tragedy, death toll rises to 40

Record ID: 858173

  • Title: RUSSIA: Search continues for survivors of Moscow market tragedy, death toll rises to 40
  • Date: 23rd February 2006
  • Summary: POLICE
  • Embargoed: 10th March 2006 12:00
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  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVAC602QA3IHPMZWWHR08RQVXFH3
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  • Story Text: A covered market in Moscow collapsed on Thursday (February 23), possibly under the weight of snow on its roof, killing at least 40 people and trapping others in the rubble, emergency services said.
    The roof of the market in Bauman district in eastern Moscow caved in at 5:45 a.m. (0245 GMT) after an overnight snowfall in the city which is experiencing one of its coldest winters in a generation.
    The accident occurred as vendors were preparing their stalls at the start of a national holiday to mark Defenders of the Motherland Day.
    "I .... had two brothers there", said Raghim, who had gone to the scene after news broke of the disaster. "I pulled his (one of his brother's) corpse out".
    Another man, Mamed, had gone to look for his brother who also worked in the market.
    Viktor Beltsov, spokesman for the Emergency Ministry, was quoted by Itar-Tass news agency as putting the death toll at 31.
    Twenty-five others had been taken to hospital suffering from injuries. Sniffer dogs had indicated 11 places where people buried in the wreckage might still be alive.
    Officials said the death toll would have been much worse if the market had been open for business at the time.
    Rescue workers poured into the area and lifting gear was used to raise twisted girders and concrete blocks that came down when the circular roof on the building collapsed.
    Bodies of the victims lay for a while in the snow alongside the debris as rescue workers concentrated their efforts on hacking their way into the rubble.
    Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who went to the scene, ruled out the possibility that the disaster was an attack by Chechen militants to coincide with the armed forces national holiday.
    Russian news agencies said the main market building came crashing down on to market stalls across an area of 2,000 square metres (21,530 sq ft).
    Emergency services sent 50 rescue teams, including firefighters, to try to extract survivors from the ruins.
    Survivors were said to be communicating from the debris by mobile phone to help rescue workers locate them.
    The architect who designed the covered market, built in the 1970s, said in a radio interview that its flat roof had not been designed to bear a heavy load of snow.
    "It seems there was a lot of snow, and nobody removed it," Nodar Kancheli was quoted by Itar-Tass news agency as telling a Moscow radio station. "Nobody was allowed to get on to the roof to clear it off."
    Kancheli was charged in April 2005 with negligence over the design of the Transvaal Park swimming pool complex, whose roof collapsed in February 2004 under the weight of snow, killing 28 people and injuring 200. He has denied responsibility.
    Heavy snow loads have caused fatal roof collapses elsewhere in Europe this winter, killing 66 people attending a pigeon fanciers exhibition in Katowice, Poland, and 15 in an ice rink in Bad Reichenhall, Germany.
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