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Five Die in Ice Rink Horror ; Roof Collapses on Skating Families

Posted on: Tuesday, 3 January 2006, 09:00 CST

By LIAM CHRISTOPHER Daily Post Correspondent

AT LEAST five people were killed, with more than 10 still missing last night, after the roof of an ice rink collapsed under the weight of a heavy snowfall in southern Germany.

Police said the roof crashed down on the rink in the Bavarian Alps while about 50 people were inside, some of them children.

At least five were killed, and rescuers were hampered by darkness and snow as they searched for the missing.

Rescue workers swarmed around the snow-covered scene and people called out their children's names outside the collapsed building in the town of Bad Reichenhall.

Doctors set up a makeshift infirmary at a building next door for the injured. Fire crews shovelled away debris.

A helicopter kept a floodlight on the hall as rescue workers scrambled to find victims and to prop up what remained of the roof in the early evening darkness. The accident happened at about 4pm.

By late evening, the police had recovered five bodies from the wreckage. About 25 injured people had been recovered.

"I think the number of dead will rise further - we are missing more people," said police spokesman Johann Bohnert, who added several families with children were in the hall when the roof fell.

"We fear that many children are among the dead and injured," said Peter Volk, a spokesman for the Malteser relief group. Rescuers feared those buried under the debris would have been pressed against the cold surface of the rink in freezing weather, he said.

Rescuers worked in steady snowfall and early evening darkness. Snow was piled deep on the streets of the town. Police spokesman Fritz Braun told n-tv television that it was very problematic getting into the hall.

The remains of the roof could only be lifted with heavy equipment, he said.

An official with a local ice hockey club in the town of Bad Reichenhall said he had been told by town authorities half an hour before the accident that a practice session for youth players was cancelled because there was a risk of the facility collapsing.

But "apparently the public skating was still continuing," Thomas Rumpeltes told the Associated Press. Braun could not confirm the warning of a possible collapse.

Tragedy hits German ski resort

Source: Daily Post; Liverpool

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