Rescue workers with search dogs picked
through rubble of an indoor water park Sunday, trying to find survivors
of a roof collapse that killed at least 25 people and injured dozens
more.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, suspect the cause
was probably 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 cash from residents of the Russian capital and its suburbs.
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 were considering several
theories of what caused the collapse, including a heavy buildup of snow,
the difference between the indoor and outdoor temperatures, and the
seepage of water into the concrete supports.
Moscow prosecutor Anatoly Zuyev said his
office had opened a criminal investigation and suspects the cause was
probably faulty construction or maintenance.
Zuyev said investigators began
questioning managers of the park Sunday and would also question its
architects and builders, as well as witnesses.
Rescue workers shoveled snow from a
tangled mass of steel and concrete, while cranes lifted chunks of
concrete, car-sized metal beams and other debris. The facade of park
appeared intact.
Generators were used to pump heat into
the area to aid any survivors trapped underneath the rubble. Rescuers
periodically ordered silence to listen for signs of life.
By noon, authorities recovered 24 bodies
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 Sunday evening.
Ninety people were hospitalized,
including 28 children, NTV television reported, adding that four people
were in critical condition and 16 in serious condition.
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 complex, and 352 of them were in the pool area when the
roof collapsed about 7:30 p.m. as visitors basked 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 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 complex, which opened in 2002, was
designed by a Russian architectural firm and built by a Turkish firm,
Kocak, Ekho Moskvy radio said. It included a large pool, an artificial
river and a water slide.