At least four dead as ice rink roof collapses

At least four people were killed and more than 20 missing tonight after the roof of an ice rink collapsed under the weight of snow in southern Germany.

Police said the roof crashed down on the rink in the Bavarian Alps while about 50 people were inside, some of them children.

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 snow-covered scene and people called out their children’s names outside 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, the wreckage of which pointed up from the centre of the building at an angle, appeared to have collapsed under the weight of snow.

By early evening, police said they had recovered four bodies from the wreckage. About 25 injured people had been recovered.

“I think the number of dead will rise further – we are missing 20 to 25 people,” police spokesman Johann Bohnert said.

He said 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.

Rescuers in helmets and heavy boots worked in steady snowfall and early evening darkness. Snow was piled deep on the streets of the town.

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”. The remains of the roof could only be lifted with heavy equipment, he said.

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.

But “apparently the public skating was still continuing,” Thomas Rumpeltes told the Associated Press.

Braun could not immediately confirm the warning of a possible collapse.

“I don’t have this information,” he said. “Until now, there were no indications of a danger of the roof collapsing. The town of Bad Reichenhall did not give us such indications, but we will look into this.”

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.

Bavarian Red Cross spokeswoman Hanna Hutschenreiter said rescue services had been called in from a wide area around Bad Reichenhall, including from Salzburg.

Bavarian Governor Edmund Stoiber said he was “deeply shaken” by the disaster. “Our hopes now rest with the rescue forces at the scene, who are doing everything they can,” he said.

The rink was 60 by 30 meters (200 by 100 feet). The building, with large glass windows around its sides, was attached to a municipal swimming pool and tennis court.