Rescue workers with sniffer dogs yesterday picked through rubble and pumped warm air into the ruins of an indoor water park whose roof crashed down on hundreds of bathers, hoping to find survivors a day after the collapse that killed at least two dozen people.
The concrete-and-steel roof collapsed Saturday evening at Transvaal Park on Moscow's southwestern outskirts -- one of many leisure and entertainment facilities built in recent years to attract cash from residents of the relatively wealthy Russian capital and its suburbs.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Initial reports said the roof collapsed after an explosion, but Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and other officials said there was no evidence a blast caused the disaster, which came with Muscovites wary in the wake of a deadly Feb. 6 subway bombing that President Vladimir Putin blamed on Chechen rebels.
Investigators were considering several theories of what caused the collapse, including a heavy buildup of snow, the stark difference between the indoor and outdoor temperatures and the seepage into the concrete supports.
Prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into negligence leading to deaths, said Moscow prosecutor Anatoly Zuyev, who said the roof collapse was probably caused by faulty construction or maintenance.
Zuyev said investigators began questioning managers of the park yesterday and would also question its architects and builders, as well as witnesses, the Interfax news agency reported.
Rescue workers shoveled snow from a tangled mass of steel and concrete, some standing atop a large stone that appeared to be part of a mock tropical scene, while cranes lifted heavy chunks of concrete, car-sized metal beams and giant buckets of broken building materials. The facade of the park appeared intact.
Generators were used to pump heat into the area to increase the chances of survival and rescuers periodically ordered moments of silence to listen for signs of life.
By noon, 24 bodies had been pulled from the rubble and one victim died in a hospital, bringing the death toll to 25, the Interfax news agency quoted Moscow official Nikolai Kulikov as saying.
In televised comments, Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said 17 people were believed missing and rescue efforts were slated to continue through yesterday evening. Shoigu said three shifts of sniffer dogs had been sent in and that many had cut their paws on broken glass.
Ninety people were hospitalized, Shoigu said. NTV television reported that four of them were in critical condition and 16 in serious condition and said 28 of those hospitalized were children. A child's birthday party was being held in the pool area when the roof collapsed, said Moscow police spokesman Kirill Mazurin.
Altogether, there were about 800 people in the water-park complex and 352 of them were in the pool area when the collapse occurred at about 7:30pm on Saturday, as visitors basked in the balmy indoor area while temperatures outside hovered around minus 15?C.
Roman Yazymin, 29, was suntanning in a solarium on the upper floors of the complex when he heard a loud noise and the crash of shattering glass.
"It wasn't an explosion, but the noise of metal collapsing," he said and noted that as he walked through the complex to retrieve his clothing "everything was in blood."
Rescue workers rushed bloodied, moaning people clad in bikinis and swim trunks on stretchers to waiting ambulances, while those who could clambered out barefoot into the snow.
The collapse left a gaping hole of 4,500m2, and torn insulation panels hung off the walls of the cavernous building.
The complex, which opened in 2002, was designed by a Russian architectural firm and constructed by a Turkish firm, Kocak, Ekho Moskvy radio said.
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