Eight people have been killed and at least 36 others injured after the roof of a large store collapsed in the Latvian capital. Rescuers continue searching for several dozen people who may still be trapped in the rubble.
Some 500 square meters of roof caved in at the ‘Maxima XX’ building in the capital, Riga.
TV pictures showed the Maxima store surrounded by fire trucks and ambulances with rescue workers using their hands and crowbars to pull away rubble from inside the single-storey concrete and glass building.
“There are eight people dead, four of them are shop clients and two are firefighters,” Latvian rescue service spokeswoman Viktorija Sembele said. “Thirty-six people have been injured.”
It was unclear how many people remained trapped in the store. Earlier news agency RIA Novosti quoted Riga Mayor Nils Usakovs as saying 70 people were trapped in the building.
Latvian TV said three cranes were working to remove concrete blocks from the roof so firemen could get to those inside, but that rescue services feared another collapse.
Latvia’s Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis told Latvian TV it was clear the rescue work would go on for many hours.
The country’s police will launch an investigation into the disaster.
“It is clear that there has been a problem with fulfillment of construction requirements,” Interior Minister Rihards Kozlovskis told Latvian TV by telephone.
Local media said workers had been building a roof garden on the store.
The supermarket’s roof fell in at around 6 pm local time (1700 GMT) when the store was busy with shoppers on their way home from work.