Rescue workers pulled bodies from the ruins of a collapsed supermarket in the Latvian capital Riga yesterday as the death toll rose to 47 in the Baltic state’s worst disaster in decades.
Cranes lifted large slabs from the wreckage of the Maxima store, in a Riga suburb of grey, Soviet-era housing, to find those trapped after the roof collapsed late on Thursday when it was full of shoppers on their way home from work.
Rescue workers cleared away rubble from the store, which had occupied around 1,500 square metres, as ambulances and fire engines stood by. Police said the death toll had reached 47, including three rescue workers. Thirty eight more were injured.
“In the past hours, no survivors have been found,” said Viktorija Sembele, a rescue service spokeswoman.
To help rescuers look for people in places where shoppers actually were during the collapse, police have created a map based on tapes from security cameras.
Latvian public television said as many as 40 people could still be trapped in the rubble, based on information from the cameras, but neither Sembele nor police could confirm the figure.
“Every hour, air temperature, high air moisture – they are factors that reduce possibility to find some survivor. But, of course, hope always remains,” Armands Plorins, chief of emergency ambulance service told TV.
The cause of the collapse remains unknown, but Interior Minister Rihards Kozlovskis said: “It is clear that there has been a problem with fulfilment of construction requirements.”
Media said workers had been building a roof garden on the supermarket, a single-storey building located about a 30-minute drive from the city centre. Soil, grass and parts of a new walkway could be seen dangling from the edges of the collapsed rooftop.
Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis announced three days of mourning from today and said the collapse had shattered Latvia, a former Soviet republic which joined the EU nearly a decade ago and will join the euro zone next year.
Earlier yesterday, about 50 people gathered near the ruins for news of relatives, while others brought candles and flowers.
“I have a wife there. There is no information about her, whether she is dead or alive. Wherever I call, there is no information,” Igor Umanov said. He added that he believed his wife was alive.
A girl at the scene told public radio she had gone into the shop with her mother when a concrete block collapsed between them and that she was nearly buried in rubble. She managed to escape but had not yet found her mother.
Others said there was a loud noise and the store went dark.