Investigators examine collapsed Polish hall

Investigators today began sifting through the wreckage of an exhibition hall in southern Poland to establish why its roof collapsed under a layer of snow.

The death toll stands at 67.

Rescuers have given up hope of finding any more survivors in the mangled wreckage of the hall, which collapsed during a pigeon racing event on Saturday afternoon.

Of the estimated 500 people in the hall at the time, some 160 were injured.

Krzysztof Mejer, a spokesman for the government of the Silesia region, said the 67th fatality was a 34-year-old man who died today in hospital from injuries suffered in the accident.

At the scene, police and public prosecutors began gathering evidence to try to work out what caused the disaster. Experts collected samples of snow from the collapsed roof to see if it alone could have been responsible.

“The site, clues and relevant documents are being secured,” Katowice police spokesman Grzegorz Wierzbiecki said.

Meanwhile, officials and firefighters were debating whether to bring in heavy equipment to speed up the recovery operation. Sweeps by rescue dogs from Poland and the Czech Republic found no more bodies yesterday.

Rescue crews had used hand tools to carve through the sheet metal and snarled poles of the collapsed building. But victims were found alive only during the first five hours of the operation, as temperatures plunged far below freezing.

Polish authorities said 59 of the victims had been identified by Monday afternoon. Officials have said they include at least seven foreigners – two Slovaks, two Czechs and one victim each from the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

Jacek Pytel, another police spokesman, said authorities had also drawn up a list of “at least 10” people reported missing, but it was unclear if they were actually at the fair. Pytel did not provide their identities.

Dirk Jespers, a 55-year-old salesman from Ghent, Belgium, was among the injured being treated in Katowice hospital.

“We were very lucky to survive,” Jespers, who had been selling pigeon food at the fair, said. “My stand was next to a pillar and near an entrance. That’s why I made it out.”

Jespers, who suffered minor head and chest injuries, was waiting to hear from doctors whether he was fit enough to fly home.

Initial reports suggested that the weight of a thick layer of icy snow caused the roof to collapse.

However, the president of the Katowice company that organised the fair, Bruce Robinson, said yesterday that “the reasons are not clear” and that the firm was working with authorities to help determine them.

Grzegorz Slyszyk, a lawyer for the building’s owners, said snow had been cleared regularly from the roof. He said they had heard from a Belgian witness that the floor collapsed before the roof did – raising the possibility of subsidence.

Slyszyk also said faulty building materials combined with bitterly cold temperatures could have caused the accident.

The Pigeon 2006 exhibition at the hall in the Bytkow district of the city opened on Friday.

People who escaped have said two emergency exits were open, but other exits were locked, and that they saw people struggling to break windows to escape.

Crumpled bird cages were scattered inside the building near the entrance, and white and brown pigeons perched on the twisted rafters.

Ewa Wtorek, a vet in Katowice, said she and colleagues had taken some of the animals to another building. She said many of the birds were badly injured and put to sleep.

President Lech Kaczynski has described the incident as the “greatest tragedy” to hit post-communist Poland, and declared a national period of mourning until Wednesday.