Latvians mourn victims of roof collapse disaster
At least 51 dead as Baltic nation mourns those who lost their lives in one of Europe's worst roof disasters
Latvians were in mourning on Saturday in the wake of one of Europe’s deadliest building disasters, with at least 51 killed after a roof caved in on shoppers in a busy Riga supermarket.
The small Baltic EU state began three days of official grieving over Thursday’s tragedy – Europe’s third worst roof disaster in the last 30 years – as rescuers kept combing the rubble for survivors.
Riga mayor Nils Usakovs said five people were still feared trapped inside the Maxima supermarket, whose roof crashed down during peak shopping hours around 6pm local time on Thursday, in the Zolitude district of the Latvian capital.
“This has been a hard day for all of Latvia,” Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis said late on Friday during a television report on the catastrophe that has shaken the nation of two million.
Three firefighters among the 200 rescuers who rushed to the scene were among those killed, while other rescue workers became themselves trapped inside during a second collapse.