Children among five dead as rescuers battle to save 10 trapped under debris

FRANTIC parents called out to children as rescuers last night battled to free at least 10 or more people trapped under the roof of an ice skating rink that collapsed under heavy snow.

Five people, including two children, were killed when the roof collapsed in southern Germany.

Police said the roof crashed down on the rink in the Bavarian Alps while about 50 people were inside. Several families with children were in hall when the roof fell.

“We fear that many children are among the dead and injured,” said Peter Volk, a spokesman for the Malteser relief group.

Rescuers feared those buried under the debris would have been pressed against the cold surface of the rink in freezing weather, he said.

“Our rescue workers are expecting not just seriously injured people, but also people suffering from hypothermia,” he added.

At least four people were killed and rescuers were hampered by darkness and snow as they searched for the missing.

Rescue workers swarmed around the collapsed building in the town of Bad Reichenhall.

Doctors set up a makeshift infirmary at a building next door, where injured people lay with intravenous hook-ups. Fire crews worked to shovel away debris.

A helicopter kept a floodlight on the hall as rescue workers scrambled to find victims and to prop up what remained of the roof in the early-evening darkness.

The accident happened at about 4pm local time during heavy snowfall.

Fire service officials said the flat roof appeared to have collapsed under the weight of snow.

By early evening, police said they had recovered four bodies from the wreckage. About 32 injured people had been recovered.

Another police spokesman, Fritz Braun, told n-tv television that “the rescue work is shaping up as very difficult - it is very problematic getting into the hall”.

An official with a local ice hockey club said he had been told by town authorities half an hour before the accident that a regular practice session for youth players was cancelled because there was a risk of the facility collapsing.

But “apparently the public skating was still continuing”, Thomas Rumpeltes said.

One radio report said a supervisor had ordered the last skaters off the ice seconds before the collapse. It also said loud creaking had been heard just before the accident.

The building was constructed in the 1970s. The town is in the southeastern corner of Germany, on the border with Austria and about six miles from the Austrian city of Salzburg.