Three dead, 20 missing in ice rink roof collapse

Three people are dead and 20 missing after the roof of an ice rink in the Bavarian Alps collapsed today with about 50 people inside.

Rescue workers swarmed over the scene in the town of Bad Reichenhall and police using a dog searched for people under the collapsed roof.

Police spokesman Fritz Braun said at least three people died, between 20 and 25 were injured and 20 were still missing.

Doctors set up a makeshift infirmary at a building next door where injured people lay with intravenous hookups.

At least three children were seen being carried by rescuers to the Red Cross medical tent.

The accident happened at about 4pm (1500GMT), following a heavy snowfall. It was still snowing this evening.

Red Cross spokeswoman Hanna Hutschenreiter earlier said “several” people were believed dead, but did not have further details.

An official with a local ice hockey club in the town of Bad Reichenhall 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.

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

Braun told The Associated Press from nearby Traunstein that firefighters were “trying to shore up the remains of the roof to get to the injured.”

“According to our information, 50 people were in the hall,” he said. A town hall spokeswoman said the accident happened just after the day’s official close of business.

There was no immediate word on what caused the collapse of the roof of the building, constructed in the 1970s. The town is in the south-eastern corner of Germany, on the border with Austria and about six miles from the Austrian city of Salzburg.

Heavy snow was complicating access to the scene. Hutschenreiter said rescue services had been called in from a wide area around Bad Reichenhall, including from Salzburg.