Roof collapse in Moscow aqua park kills 8, injures 60

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, February 15, 2004

Roof collapse in Moscow aqua park kills 8, injures 60

At least eight people were killed and 60 others injured when a roof in Moscow's largest aqua park collapsed Saturday evening, Itar-Tass news agency reported.

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At least eight people were killed and 60 others injured when a roof in Moscow's largest aqua park collapsed Saturday evening, Itar-Tass news agency reported.

The agency reported earlier that the roof cave-in might be caused by an explosion, but police later ruled out such possibility and confirmed that the collapse was due to the heavy snow accumulated on the roof over the past days. "There was no explosion," said Emergencies Ministry deputy spokesman Viktor Beltsov.

The glass dome over a children's swimming pool in the indoor water park collapsed at 7:20 p.m. Moscow time (1620 GMT), some people at the scene said they had heard what sounded like an explosion just before the cave-in.

The sharp sound that many people heard was "in fact the crunch of the bursting dome" due to the low temperature, Itar-Tass quotedan unnamed law-enforcement official as saying.

The Transvaal aqua park in Moscow's southwestern suburbs is thelargest of its kind in the Russian capital. Built in 2002, it covers an area of over 20,000 square meters. It has 16 up-and-downhills, three pools, an artificial river, water slides and several sauna rooms. It can accommodate up to 2,000 visitors.

About 600 people were in the complex entertainment facility when the accident occurred. Many of them fled into temperatures of15 degrees Celsius below zero in their bathing suits or wrapped intowels.

The building of the park is covered with clouds of steam billowing out of the collapsed dome into the chilly night.

The situation at the site has been put under control, ambulances and rescue teams have almost finished evacuating peoplefrom the scene. Emergency staff believed that more people might beburied under the rubble.

Moscow has been jittered since the Feb. 6 metro explosion that killed 41 people and wounded some 100 others. President Vladimir Putin blamed the tragedy on Chechen separatists.

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