More bodies found in Polish roof collapse

Rescue teams have found more bodies in the rubble of a Polish exhibition hall that collapsed on Saturday, adding to the toll …

Rescue teams have found more bodies in the rubble of a Polish exhibition hall that collapsed on Saturday, adding to the toll of more than 60 people known to have died.

In the country's worst accident since the 1980s, the roof of a hall in the southern city of Chorzow caved in on Saturday during an international show of racing pigeons.

"Search dogs pointed to a particular spot, so we brought in extendable cameras ... we were able to see a person's head and started digging, and next to that body we found another one," rescue worker Miroslaw Pulit told TVN 24 television.

"We're definitely going to keep looking," Pulit said, adding that continued freezing temperatures were hindering the effort.

READ MORE

The precise death toll was not clear. Prosecutors said 51 bodies had been identified by family members and more than 10 still required identification.

Prosecutors said the fatalities included at least two people each from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, one Belgian, one Dutch citizen, one German and one person with dual Polish-German citizenship.

The authorities blame the weight of the snow for the accident, but the representatives of building co-owner and operator MTK, a unit of London-listed Expomedia, said the roof was cleared regularly.

A fire brigade spokesman said that in 2002 crews had been called to the MTK complex to clear snow from a roof after structural damage was reported, but was unable to confirm which of the several MTK buildings it was.

TVN 24 interviewed visitors to the fair who claimed that water was leaking from the roof on Saturday.

MTK executive Grzegorz Slyszyk declined to comment, saying the company would hold a news conference in two or three days.