RUSSIA: Russian rescuers searched desperately for survivors yesterday among the shattered concrete and twisted metal of a Moscow water park, after its roof collapsed and killed at least 28 St Valentine's Day revellers and injured more than 100.
Officials said at least 15 people could still be trapped in the rubble of Saturday night's disaster, which left hundreds of Muscovites in swimming costumes scrambling for their lives through wreckage and snow in temperatures of minus 20 degrees.
Several children were among those killed and injured at the Transvaal Park complex, a popular place for birthday parties and nights out for young Russians.
Almost 400 people were in the pool when the roof caved in, including many couples celebrating St Valentine's Day with a few hours of tropical warmth in a freezing winter.
Investigators said they wanted to question the builders and architects of the two-year complex of pools and waterslides, after initial findings suggested the roof may have given way under the weight of recently fallen snow.
Throughout the night and day, rescuers clambered through a bizarre scene of devastation: plastic garden furniture among smashed concrete and glass, bloodied bodies in swimming trunks and bikinis carried to ambulances waiting in the deep snow.
Russian officials said the amount of unopened lockers in the pool's changing room suggested that many people were still trapped in the ruins, and hot air was pumped in to try and stop any survivors freezing to death as daytime temperatures struggled to reach minus 10 degrees.
"There was a sudden sound - a crack - and my older son said it was like a terrible dream," said Mrs Olga Matveyeva, whose two sons were at the water park with their grandmother.
"It was as if the roof collapsed in two and there was terrible panic as people tried to get out however they could." "There was a great deal of blood," Mrs Matveyeva said. Her sons were treated for frostbite.
As night fell, workers toiled under floodlights and giant cranes moved in to remove concrete slabs from above the swimming pool itself, where rescuers hoped people may have survived in the warm water.
News of the accident in southern Moscow raced around a city still reeling from a February 6th explosion on a metro train that killed at least 40 people, and which Russian officials blamed on Chechnya's separatist rebels.
Russian media initially said the roof collapse was caused by a bomb, but officials rushed to correct them and throw suspicion on to the builders of the swimming complex.
