NOVI SAD – Serbian rescuers stopped searching for survivors on Saturday after pulling out 14 bodies from underneath tons of concrete from a fallen canopy at the entrance of a railway station in the northern city of Novi Sad.
Serbia’s government declared Saturday a day of mourning as officials promised a thorough investigation into Friday's collapse of the roof that fell on people sitting below it. The dead included a 6-year-old girl and a citizen of North Macedonia while three people were seriously injured, Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said.
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Doctors said the injured ranged from 18 to 24 years old and remained in life-threatening condition on Saturday.
The train station has been renovated twice in recent years, and critics of Serbia’s populist government attributed the disaster to corruption and sloppy renovations. Members of the opposition planned to protest in front of the station later on Saturday.
Officials have insisted that the canopy had not been part of the renovation work. Goran Vesic, the government minister for construction and infrastructure, told the state RTS television the tragedy would not have happened had the canopy been renovated as well.
Dacic said some 20 people will be questioned on Saturday as part of the investigation, including Vesic.
Authorities deployed heavy machinery and some 80 rescuers who struggled for hours to remove large parts of concrete that crashed just before noon Friday. The rescue effort lasted until late Friday evening.
Residents of Novi Sad lit candles and held a vigil for the victims at the site. Many responded to a call to donate blood.
”This morning I drank my coffee in tears. It is hard this has happened in our city,” said Dragica Camber, a resident of Novi Sad,
Surveillance camera footage on Friday showed people moving in and out of the building and sitting on benches on a bright, sunny day before the concrete canopy suddenly collapsed. Windows shook on nearby buildings.
The railway station, including the canopy, was built in 1964. The renovation work was carried out by Chinese companies.
The renovated station was inaugurated by President Aleksandar Vucic and his populist ally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, over two years ago as a major stopover for a planned fast train line between Belgrade and Budapest.