Dozens killed in Latvia after roof collapses

RIGA — Hundreds of shoppers were picking up food after work in the Latvian capital when an enormous section of the supermarket’s roof caved in. Firefighters rushed in to save them, only to be crushed themselves when a second part of the roof collapsed.

The death toll from the rush-hour disaster Thursday evening at the Maxima supermarket in Riga rose to 47 on Friday, including three firefighters, police said. Spokesman Toms Sadovskisk said the death toll is expected to go higher, and that six of the dead were still unidentified.

A further 35 people were injured, 28 of them hospitalized, including 10 firefighters struck just as they entered the unstable building, the Fire and Rescue Service said.

It was the largest tragedy for the Baltic state since it regained independence in 1991. Latvia’s government declared three days of mourning starting Saturday.

The rescue agency could not say how many people might be trapped under the rubble in the densely populated, working-class neighbourhood between downtown Riga and the city’s airport.

The reason for the collapse was still not known, but officials said workers had been building a garden on the roof as part of the supermarket’s original design. Riga Mayor Nils Usakovs told reporters that large bags of earth and sand on a weak spot on the roof could have caused the collapse.

Rescuers kept up their round-theclock search for possible survivors as darkness fell on Friday, periodically turning off equipment and asking relatives of the missing to call so they could pinpoint ringing phones.

The building was completed in November 2011.