Ice rink claims 10 children but even more feared dead

THE death toll in the ice rink collapse in the German Alps rose to 12 yesterday after rescue workers found the body of a young boy in the rubble where three more people are believed to be trapped.

The boy was aged between 12 and 16, according to regional official Rudolf Schaupp, and is one of ten children who have died after the roof of the rink in the resort of Bad Reichenhall caved in on Monday amid heavy snow. Rescuers racing against time were also searching for a woman in her forties and a boy and girl aged 12-16, but hopes were fading that they would be found alive.A spokesman for the Bavarian state authorities, Christoph Abress, said that victims had been located but could not yet be pulled out.”We must assume that they did not survive,” he said.The fire services chief in the Bavarian Alps spa resort, Rudi Zeif, had vowed to continue working “until the last living person or the last corpse is retrieved.”Some 200 rescue workers were still digging through the rubble and snow yesterday morning with the aid of cranes and excavators.Officials said about 40 per cent of the surface of the ice skating rink had been cleared and sniffer dogs had also been brought in to help locate those trapped.The rescue operation at the rink, which was built in the 1970s, had earlier been hampered by continuing heavy snowfall.All the victims found so far are from the region, and as darkness fell Tuesday in the town of 18 000 several hundred people gathered in front of the town hall for a candlelit vigil for the dead.According to local radio, a funeral ceremony would be held next Tuesday.Thirty-four people were injured when the roof collapsed some 15 minutes before the rink was due to close for the day.Thirteen of them were still in hospital but their lives were not in danger, according to the radio.It was not immediately clear what caused the flat roof of the building to cave in, in a region accustomed to heavy snowfall.Der Tagesspiegel newspaper yesterday cited weather services as saying there must have been about 180 tonnes of snow on the roof when it collapsed.The coach of a local ice hockey club, Thomas Rumpeltes, said the snow was due to have been cleared from the roof before the accident.Rumpeltes said authorities told him of the impending clearance shortly before the accident and he cancelled a practice at the rink for a youth team.He said no one had warned of any risk of the roof being unstable and that the snow removal was a precautionary measure.Mayor Wolfgang Heitmeier has dismissed accusations of negligence for allowing the rink to remain open, saying the roof had been examined in the late morning Monday to determine whether it could withstand the weight of the snow.He rejected speculation that the authorities knew of structural problems, saying he “could not explain” what caused the collapse.State prosecutor Helmut Vordermayer has said evidence was being collected and an official probe into the accident had been opened.- Nampa-AFPRescuers racing against time were also searching for a woman in her forties and a boy and girl aged 12-16, but hopes were fading that they would be found alive.A spokesman for the Bavarian state authorities, Christoph Abress, said that victims had been located but could not yet be pulled out.”We must assume that they did not survive,” he said.The fire services chief in the Bavarian Alps spa resort, Rudi Zeif, had vowed to continue working “until the last living person or the last corpse is retrieved.”Some 200 rescue workers were still digging through the rubble and snow yesterday morning with the aid of cranes and excavators.Officials said about 40 per cent of the surface of the ice skating rink had been cleared and sniffer dogs had also been brought in to help locate those trapped.The rescue operation at the rink, which was built in the 1970s, had earlier been hampered by continuing heavy snowfall.All the victims found so far are from the region, and as darkness fell Tuesday in the town of 18 000 several hundred people gathered in front of the town hall for a candlelit vigil for the dead.According to local radio, a funeral ceremony would be held next Tuesday.Thirty-four people were injured when the roof collapsed some 15 minutes before the rink was due to close for the day.Thirteen of them were still in hospital but their lives were not in danger, according to the radio.It was not immediately clear what caused the flat roof of the building to cave in, in a region accustomed to heavy snowfall.Der Tagesspiegel newspaper yesterday cited weather services as saying there must have been about 180 tonnes of snow on the roof when it collapsed.The coach of a local ice hockey club, Thomas Rumpeltes, said the snow was due to have been cleared from the roof before the accident.Rumpeltes said authorities told him of the impending clearance shortly before the accident and he cancelled a practice at the rink for a youth team.He said no one had warned of any risk of the roof being unstable and that the snow removal was a precautionary measure.Mayor Wolfgang Heitmeier has dismissed accusations of negligence for allowing the rink to remain open, saying the roof had been examined in the late morning Monday to determine whether it could withstand the weight of the snow.He rejected speculation that the authorities knew of structural problems, saying he “could not explain” what caused the collapse.State prosecutor Helmut Vordermayer has said evidence was being collected and an official probe into the accident had been opened.- Nampa-AFP