Three questioned over deadly Polish roof collapse

Three people have been detained for questioning and likely will face charges over the roof collapse that killed 65 people in Poland last month, the justice minister said today.

Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said prosecutors “intend to press charges” against the three suspects, one of whom is a foreign citizen.

The likely charges range from unintentionally causing danger to life, to intentionally causing a construction accident involving fatalities. Those charges carry prison terms of up to eight years.

The suspects detained included two board members of the company that owned the exhibition hall in the southern city of Katowice and its technical manager, Ziobro said at a news conference.

Two were detained in Katowice province, and the foreigner was detained in Warsaw, Ziobro said, without releasing their names or specifying the foreigner’s nationality.

They were the first people to be detained in the investigation, for which authorities have questioned some 200 people, the minister said. Prosecutors planned to question more people.

The roof of the hall collapsed on January 28 during an international racing pigeon fair.

No cause has been given yet for the roof collapse, but authorities believe a thick layer of snow and ice may have played a role.