Posted on 02/15/2004 6:58:33 AM PST by BenLurkin
MOSCOW (AP) - Rescue workers with search dogs picked through the rubble of an indoor water park Sunday, trying to find survivors of a roof collapse that killed at least 26 people and injured more than 100. Prosecutors suspect the collapse was caused by faulty construction or maintenance, and opened a criminal investigation.
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 affluent people from the Russian capital and its suburbs.
Rescue workers carried bloodied, moaning people in bathing suits to ambulances on stretchers, while others clambered through the snow in bare feet.
By Sunday afternoon, the death toll was 26, the news agencies Interfax and ITAR-Tass reported. Interfax said six of the dead were children.
Workers shoveled snow from a tangled mass of steel and concrete, while cranes lifted chunks of concrete, metal beams and other debris. The park's facade appeared intact.
Crews pumped heat into the area to aid any survivors trapped in the rubble and periodically ordered silence to listen for signs of life.
In televised comments, Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said 17 people were believed missing, and search and rescue efforts would continue through Sunday evening.
Of 111 people injured, 84 remained hospitalized Sunday afternoon, five of them in critical condition. There were 29 children among those hospitalized.
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 comes as many in the capital are still shaken by a deadly Feb. 6 subway bombing blamed on Chechen rebels.
Investigators had several theories of what caused the collapse, including an accumulation of snow, the difference between the indoor and outdoor temperatures, and water seepage into the concrete supports.
Moscow prosecutor Anatoly Zuyev said his office began questioning park managers Sunday as part of an investigation into whether faulty maintenance or construction caused the collapse. Investigators also planned to interview the architects, builders and witnesses, he added.
"There was a sudden sound, a crack, and my older son said it was like a terrible dream," Olga Matveyeva, who was not at the park, told NTV. "It was as if the roof collapsed in two ... and there was terrible panic as people tried to get out power they could."
Matveyeva said her sons escaped in their bathing suits and bare feet. They were hospitalized with frostbite.
A child's birthday party was being held in the pool area when the roof collapsed, said Moscow police spokesman Kirill Mazurin.
In all, there were about 800 people in the water park when the roof collapsed about 7:30 p.m., with visitors basking in the balmy indoor area while temperatures outside hovered around 5 degrees.
Roman Yazymin, 29, was sun-tanning in a solarium on the upper floors 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, adding that as he walked through the complex to retrieve his clothing "everything was in blood."
The complex, which opened in 2002, was designed by a Russian architects and built by a Turkish firm, Kocak, Ekho Moskvy radio said.
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