Poland: 65 dead in roof collapse

Rescuers were today searching for victims buried when the roof of an exhibition hall in southern Poland collapsed on a racing pigeon show, killing at least 65 people and injuring a further 160.

The death toll rose steadily as rescuers dug through the debris of the building, which collapsed at around 5:30pm (4.30pm Irish time) last night in the city of Katowice.

But hopes of finding survivors started to fade early today after no one had been found alive since 10pm (9pm Irish time) last night in -17C cold.

Crews who had been using only hand tools to pick through the wreckage were preparing to step up the operation.

“Officials are at the scene now to see if heavy equipment can be brought in,” Mejer said.

Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz joined hundreds of others packing Katowice’s Cathedral of Christ the King this morning for a special mass being celebrated by Archbishop Damian Zimon for the victims of the tragedy.

At least 65 people were killed, said Krzysztof Mejer, a spokesman for the government of the Silesia region. Among the dead was a police officer who was providing security for the exhibition, said police spokesman Janusz Jonczyk, adding that there were at least 160 people injured.

A visibly exhausted Janusz Skulich, head of the Silesia region fire brigade, said: “it can’t be excluded” that rescuers will find the dead “over the next few days” by using special equipment to get to places they couldn’t now reach.

“We know they aren’t alive, but we can’t reach them,” he said. “We will be able to reach them when the whole construction will be systematically pulled down.”

“The likelihood that we will find people alive down there is almost zero,” Skulich said on TVN24.

It wasn’t clear how many more victims might still be under the building. Up to 500 people were in the exhibition centre when the roof fell in. People trapped in the wreckage used mobile phones to call relatives or emergency services and tell them where they were.

Tadeusz Dlugosz was dragged out of the twisted wreckage of the building, only to find out his 26-year-old son, who had been visiting another exhibit when the hall roof collapsed, had been killed.

This morning he remained at the site trying to find out where his son’s body had been taken.

“It was his idea to come to the fair … and he found his grave there,” Dlugosz said. “I don’t know which morgue he’s in. I would like to see him and take him as quickly as possible.”

People who escaped said two emergency exits were open, but other exits were locked, leaving others trapped.

Witness Franciszek Kowal, who got out onto a terrace and jumped about 13ft to safety, saw people struggling to break windows to escape.

“Luckily nothing happened to me, but I saw a macabre scene, as people tried to break windows in order to get out,” said Kowal. “People were hitting the panes with chairs, but the windows were unbreakable. One of the panes finally broke, and they started to get out by the window.”

Attorney Grzegorz Slyszyk, who represents the company that owns the building, said he had no immediate information on the reports but that if exits were locked, the reason why would be investigated.

An unidentified woman with bandages around her head, a bloodied chin and scrapes on her face told TVN24 from her hospital bed that she feared one of her friends was dead.

“I heard a snap like breaking matches as the roof fell on everybody. Then I heard an unbelievable scream, and then I tried to escape like everybody else,” she said.

“Something fell on me, I turned around, somebody stepped on me, but on my knees I was able to get out,” she added. ”I still don’t know where some of my friends are and I haven’t had any contact with them – most likely one of them is dead.”

Police said snow caused the roof to collapse, but Slyszyk, the attorney for building management disputed that, saying snow had been regularly removed and that it was too early to speculate on a cause.

Some 1,300 firefighters, police officers and mine rescue workers from around the region were brought in to help.

The 110,000sq-ft hall in the Bytkow district of the city had been hosting the exhibition, which opened on Friday.

The “Pigeon 2006” fair was made up of more than 120 exhibitors, including groups from Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Ukraine and Poland, according to the fair’s website.

Katowice, some 200 miles south of Warsaw in a mining region, has been hit with the same heavy snow this winter that has been plaguing much of eastern and central Europe.