Katowice Trade Hall roof collapse
Encyclopedia
On 28 January 2006, the roof
of one of the buildings at Katowice International Fair
(Międzynarodowe Targi Katowickie) collapsed in Chorzów
/ Katowice
, Poland
.
At 16:15 GMT (17:15 local time), the central section of the roof of the hall collapsed, possibly due to the weight of snow on the building. According to the police
there were roughly 700 people in the hall at the time of the collapse. A further collapse occurred 90 minutes later during rescue operations. Polish government spokesman Krzysztof Mejer confirmed that there had been 65 dead as well as more than 170 injured, including 13 foreigners. There are confirmed deaths of ten foreign tourists - one from Belgium
, one from Germany
, three from Slovakia
, one from the Netherlands
, one from the Hungary
and three from the Czech Republic
. The trade hall was hosting 56th National Exhibition of Carrier Pigeon
s, with over 120 exhibitors from all over Europe
. Poland was at that time experiencing very cold weather with heavy snow. This means the rescue
operation was undertaken in sub-zero temperatures, putting survivors inside the building at risk of exposure.
. Since parts of the collapsed structure were supported only by heaps of snow, the rescue teams could not heat the pockets beneath the collapsed roof with hot air, fearing that the roof might collapse even further.
The search and rescue
action was terminated on the afternoon of Sunday January 29, 2006 as, according to Janusz Skulich, commander of the Silesia
n Fire Fighters, the probability of rescuing any more survivors from beneath the collapsed roof was by then close to zero. Heavy equipment is reported to have started clearing the area of the remaining rubble. The rescue action was carried out by 103 firefighter teams (more than 1000 fire fighters altogether), EMS
units as well as 230 policemen with dogs, military police units from Kraków
and Gliwice
, the GOPR mountain rescue
team of Szczyrk
and specialists from the mine rescue
team of Bytom
. Survivors were taken to nearby hospitals in Chorzów
and Katowice
, and to other towns of the region, including Siemianowice Śląskie
, Bytom
, Sosnowiec
, Ruda Śląska
, Dąbrowa Górnicza
and Piekary Śląskie
. Andrzej Skrzyś, vice-president of Polish Society of Carrier-Pigeons said that already on Saturday the rescue services brought over 1,000 pigeons to the office of the society that are being fed and watered by pigeon-fanciers from Chorzów until the arrival of their owners. On 30 January 2006 there were 67 confirmed deaths and about 30 missing people. Later that day the number of victims was revised down to 62 confirmed deaths. On 31 January three more bodies were found in the ruins of MTK, raising the death toll to 65. Next day, officials stated that due to irregularities by funeral houses and dissection rooms, the wrong number of victims had been reported, and on 1 February there were 63 confirmed deaths. On February 11 and February 14 the bodies of 64th and 65th victims of roof collapse were found.
In the morning of 19 February workers got to the last area of the hall that was still covered by fragments of the hall’s collapsed roof. They found no more victims but found two pigeons that were still alive after spending 22 days trapped under the rubble.
and the President of Poland Lech Kaczyński
. The latter declared the period until February 1 to be national days of mourning
.
On Tuesday, 21 February, at 0600 hours Central European Time (0500 UTC) three persons were arrested and then brought to the Katowice District Prosecutor’s Office: New Zealand–born chairman of the International Katowice Fair Board of Management Bruce Robinson (who is also a Managing Director of London–based Expomedia company that owns 51% share in MTK), deputy chairman Ryszard Ziółek, and company’s technical manager Adam Hildebrandt. They were interviewed and charged with criminal negligence – allegedly they were aware of the fact that the building was unsafe and yet allowed the Fair to go on, and by doing so they contributed to deaths of 65 people. The spokesperson for the Prosecutor’s Office did not rule out laying other charges in the future — depending on facts established by experts on causes of the building’s collapse. A search warrant was also executed at Mr. Robinson’s Warsaw apartment. The charges carry a maximum of 8 years imprisonment. Prosecutors also applied to the court for the accused to be detained for 3 months. The application was granted by the court, their application for bail was refused. A judge is quoted as saying that immediately after the catastrophe the accused destroyed some vital documents and there exists a possibility that if they were released on bail they would intimidate witnesses to change their testimonies. Their appeal against arrest was rejected by District Court on 5 May.
After interviewing some 200 witnesses, analysis of company documents, experts’ findings and data from company’s computers (some of which was recovered by computer specialists) the prosecutors allege that the accused are responsible for failing to remove heavy snow and ice from the building’s roof, and also that in the past the roof got damaged and yet they carried out only emergency repairs and did not report the damage to a building inspector as required by Polish law. Earlier the managers claimed both that the snow was removed from the roof and that it was impossible for them to clear the roof because a Tax Office seized their accounts due to tax arrears. A spokesperson for the Tax Office refuted this claim saying that only some of the company’s cash was seized and amount remaining should have been more than sufficient to pay for snow and ice removal.
On 31 March 2006 the commission investigating causes of the disaster released a preliminary report into their findings. They found numerous design and construction flaws that contributed to the speed of collapse. The snow from the roof was not being removed which resulted in construction overload by more than 100%. Moreover, in 2002 the construction buckled under the heavy snow; contrary to the regulations the hall was repaired without getting a building inspector’s clearance and without doing necessary tests and calculations to determine if the construction was stable and had sufficient strength.
On Monday, 26 June 2006, three architects who designed the hall were arrested. Two were charged with "wilfully causing a building catastrophe" and by this causing death of 65 people, the third one was charged with "involuntary causing a building catastrophe." The prosecutor alleges that Jacek J. and Szczepan K. made several errors and introduced several amendments to the project that were not agreed upon. Both were aware of the fact that in January 2000 the roof buckled under the weight of the snow, yet they did not take any steps to remedy the situation and perhaps prevent the tragedy. The third architect, Andrzej W., is charged with approving the project despite its errors and deficiencies. The charges are the result of reports made by experts on building, steel constructions and reinforced concrete constructions. Pursuant to Polish law that automatically grants accused name suppression, the surnames of the accused are unavailable in Polish media.
On 14 February 2007 the Court of Appeal in Katowice granted bail to the three top bosses of the company – Bruce Robinson, Ryszard Ziółek, and Adam Hildebrandt. Mr. Robinson will have to pay a 100,000 zloty bond (approx. €25,000/$33,000/£17,000), the other two – 50,000 zloty each. All three will also remain under police supervision and will have to surrender their passports. The prosecutor has appealed against granting them bail while one of the accused has appealed against the amount. On Monday, the 5 March 2007, the Court of Appeal in Katowice rejected both appeals and at the same time raised the amount that Bruce Robinson has to deposit to 300,000 zloty (about €75,000/$100,000/£50,000). The ruling is final.
As a result of the catastrophe, in March 2007 the Polish building law was amended. Large buildings must now undergo a technical survey twice every year (before and after winter) to make sure they are safe and structurally sound. Failure to conduct the survey is punishable by a minimum 1,000 zloty fine or a term of prison.
The experts determined that the main reason for the catastrophe was incorrect project. It was changed in order to make the construction cheaper. E-mails recovered from seized computers prove that members of the Board of Directors were fully aware of the problems and of an expert’s recommendation that snow be removed from the roof and that the project is verified. One of the indicted, technical coordinator Piotr I., is charged with failing to order the evacuation doors to be opened; he is the only one that pleaded guilty. In the course of investigation it was found that none of the victims died because of locked evacuation doors.
Postmortems carried out on victims have shown that none of them died because to exposure; all died because of injuries sustained because of the collapse of the roof.
Roof
A roof is the covering on the uppermost part of a building. A roof protects the building and its contents from the effects of weather. Structures that require roofs range from a letter box to a cathedral or stadium, dwellings being the most numerous....
of one of the buildings at Katowice International Fair
Katowice International Fair
Katowice International Fair is an international trade fair in Katowice and one of the largest in Poland...
(Międzynarodowe Targi Katowickie) collapsed in Chorzów
Chorzów
Chorzów is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. Chorzów is one of the central districts of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union - a metropolis with a population of 2 million...
/ Katowice
Katowice
Katowice is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, on the Kłodnica and Rawa rivers . Katowice is located in the Silesian Highlands, about north of the Silesian Beskids and about southeast of the Sudetes Mountains.It is the central district of the Upper Silesian Metropolis, with a population of 2...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
.
At 16:15 GMT (17:15 local time), the central section of the roof of the hall collapsed, possibly due to the weight of snow on the building. According to the police
Policja
Policja is the generic name for the police in Poland. The Polish police force was known as policja throughout the Second Polish Republic , and in modern post-communist Republic of Poland since 1990. Its current size is 103.309 officers and ca. 12.000 civilian employees...
there were roughly 700 people in the hall at the time of the collapse. A further collapse occurred 90 minutes later during rescue operations. Polish government spokesman Krzysztof Mejer confirmed that there had been 65 dead as well as more than 170 injured, including 13 foreigners. There are confirmed deaths of ten foreign tourists - one from Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, one from Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, three from Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
, one from the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, one from the Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
and three from the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
. The trade hall was hosting 56th National Exhibition of Carrier Pigeon
Carrier pigeon
A carrier pigeon is a homing pigeon that is used to carry messages. Using pigeons to carry messages is generally called "pigeon post". Most homing or racing type varieties are used to carry messages. There is no specific breed actually called "carrier pigeon"...
s, with over 120 exhibitors from all over Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. Poland was at that time experiencing very cold weather with heavy snow. This means the rescue
Rescue
Rescue refers to responsive operations that usually involve the saving of life, or prevention of injury during an incident or dangerous situation....
operation was undertaken in sub-zero temperatures, putting survivors inside the building at risk of exposure.
Rescue operation
Rescue support was sent from the surrounding area, including Katowice, as well as from the neighbouring province of Lesser PolandLesser Poland
Lesser Poland is one of the historical regions of Poland, with its capital in the city of Kraków. It forms the southeastern corner of the country, and should not be confused with the modern Lesser Poland Voivodeship, which covers only a small, southern part of Lesser Poland...
. Since parts of the collapsed structure were supported only by heaps of snow, the rescue teams could not heat the pockets beneath the collapsed roof with hot air, fearing that the roof might collapse even further.
The search and rescue
Search and rescue
Search and rescue is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger.The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, mostly based upon terrain considerations...
action was terminated on the afternoon of Sunday January 29, 2006 as, according to Janusz Skulich, commander of the Silesia
Silesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...
n Fire Fighters, the probability of rescuing any more survivors from beneath the collapsed roof was by then close to zero. Heavy equipment is reported to have started clearing the area of the remaining rubble. The rescue action was carried out by 103 firefighter teams (more than 1000 fire fighters altogether), EMS
Emergency medical services in Poland
Emergency Medical Services in Poland is a service of public pre-hospital emergency healthcare, including ambulance service, provided by individual Polish cities and counties. These services are typically provided by the local, publicly operated hospital, and funded by the government of Poland...
units as well as 230 policemen with dogs, military police units from Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
and Gliwice
Gliwice
Gliwice is a city in Upper Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. Gliwice is the west district of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union – a metropolis with a population of 2 million...
, the GOPR mountain rescue
Mountain rescue
Mountain rescue refers to search and rescue activities that occur in a mountainous environment, although the term is sometimes also used to apply to search and rescue in other wilderness environments. The difficult and remote nature of the terrain in which mountain rescue often occurs has resulted...
team of Szczyrk
Szczyrk
Szczyrk is a town in the Beskid Śląski mountains of southern Poland, situated in the valley of the Żylica river. It is part of the Silesian Voivodeship , previously being part of the Bielsko-Biała Voivodeship . It has a population of 5,810 people .The town is a popular winter sports centre, with...
and specialists from the mine rescue
Mine rescue
Mine rescue is the very specialized job of rescuing miners and others who have become trapped or injured underground in mines because of mining accidents and disasters such as explosions caused by firedamp, roof falls or floods.- Expert volunteers :...
team of Bytom
Bytom
Bytom is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. The central-western district of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union - metropolis with the population of 2 millions. Bytom is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Bytomka river .The city belongs to the Silesian Voivodeship since...
. Survivors were taken to nearby hospitals in Chorzów
Chorzów
Chorzów is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. Chorzów is one of the central districts of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union - a metropolis with a population of 2 million...
and Katowice
Katowice
Katowice is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, on the Kłodnica and Rawa rivers . Katowice is located in the Silesian Highlands, about north of the Silesian Beskids and about southeast of the Sudetes Mountains.It is the central district of the Upper Silesian Metropolis, with a population of 2...
, and to other towns of the region, including Siemianowice Śląskie
Siemianowice Slaskie
Siemianowice Śląskie aka Siemianowice ; is a city in Upper Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. The central district of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union - metropolis with the population of 2 millions...
, Bytom
Bytom
Bytom is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. The central-western district of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union - metropolis with the population of 2 millions. Bytom is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Bytomka river .The city belongs to the Silesian Voivodeship since...
, Sosnowiec
Sosnowiec
Sosnowiec is a city in Zagłębie Dąbrowskie in southern Poland, near Katowice. It is one of the central districts of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union - a metropolis with a combined population of over two million people located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Brynica river .It is situated in...
, Ruda Śląska
Ruda Slaska
Ruda Śląska is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. It is a district in the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union, a metropolis with a population of 2 million. It is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Kłodnica river ....
, Dąbrowa Górnicza
Dabrowa Górnicza
Dąbrowa Górnicza is a city in Zagłębie Dąbrowskie in southern Poland, nearby Katowice. The north-east district of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union - metropolis with the population of almost 3 millions...
and Piekary Śląskie
Piekary Slaskie
Piekary Śląskie is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. The north district of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union - metropolis with the population of 2 million...
. Andrzej Skrzyś, vice-president of Polish Society of Carrier-Pigeons said that already on Saturday the rescue services brought over 1,000 pigeons to the office of the society that are being fed and watered by pigeon-fanciers from Chorzów until the arrival of their owners. On 30 January 2006 there were 67 confirmed deaths and about 30 missing people. Later that day the number of victims was revised down to 62 confirmed deaths. On 31 January three more bodies were found in the ruins of MTK, raising the death toll to 65. Next day, officials stated that due to irregularities by funeral houses and dissection rooms, the wrong number of victims had been reported, and on 1 February there were 63 confirmed deaths. On February 11 and February 14 the bodies of 64th and 65th victims of roof collapse were found.
In the morning of 19 February workers got to the last area of the hall that was still covered by fragments of the hall’s collapsed roof. They found no more victims but found two pigeons that were still alive after spending 22 days trapped under the rubble.
Aftermath and investigation
After the tragedy, the highest authorities arrived to the scene, including the Prime Minister Kazimierz MarcinkiewiczKazimierz Marcinkiewicz
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz is a Polish conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of Poland from October 31, 2005 to July 14, 2006...
and the President of Poland Lech Kaczyński
Lech Kaczynski
Lech Aleksander Kaczyński was Polish lawyer and politician who served as the President of Poland from 2005 until 2010 and as Mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 22 December 2005. Before he became a president, he was also a member of the party Prawo i Sprawiedliwość...
. The latter declared the period until February 1 to be national days of mourning
National day of mourning
A national day of mourning is a day marked by mourning and memorial activities observed among the majority of a country's populace. They are designated by that nation's government...
.
On Tuesday, 21 February, at 0600 hours Central European Time (0500 UTC) three persons were arrested and then brought to the Katowice District Prosecutor’s Office: New Zealand–born chairman of the International Katowice Fair Board of Management Bruce Robinson (who is also a Managing Director of London–based Expomedia company that owns 51% share in MTK), deputy chairman Ryszard Ziółek, and company’s technical manager Adam Hildebrandt. They were interviewed and charged with criminal negligence – allegedly they were aware of the fact that the building was unsafe and yet allowed the Fair to go on, and by doing so they contributed to deaths of 65 people. The spokesperson for the Prosecutor’s Office did not rule out laying other charges in the future — depending on facts established by experts on causes of the building’s collapse. A search warrant was also executed at Mr. Robinson’s Warsaw apartment. The charges carry a maximum of 8 years imprisonment. Prosecutors also applied to the court for the accused to be detained for 3 months. The application was granted by the court, their application for bail was refused. A judge is quoted as saying that immediately after the catastrophe the accused destroyed some vital documents and there exists a possibility that if they were released on bail they would intimidate witnesses to change their testimonies. Their appeal against arrest was rejected by District Court on 5 May.
After interviewing some 200 witnesses, analysis of company documents, experts’ findings and data from company’s computers (some of which was recovered by computer specialists) the prosecutors allege that the accused are responsible for failing to remove heavy snow and ice from the building’s roof, and also that in the past the roof got damaged and yet they carried out only emergency repairs and did not report the damage to a building inspector as required by Polish law. Earlier the managers claimed both that the snow was removed from the roof and that it was impossible for them to clear the roof because a Tax Office seized their accounts due to tax arrears. A spokesperson for the Tax Office refuted this claim saying that only some of the company’s cash was seized and amount remaining should have been more than sufficient to pay for snow and ice removal.
On 31 March 2006 the commission investigating causes of the disaster released a preliminary report into their findings. They found numerous design and construction flaws that contributed to the speed of collapse. The snow from the roof was not being removed which resulted in construction overload by more than 100%. Moreover, in 2002 the construction buckled under the heavy snow; contrary to the regulations the hall was repaired without getting a building inspector’s clearance and without doing necessary tests and calculations to determine if the construction was stable and had sufficient strength.
On Monday, 26 June 2006, three architects who designed the hall were arrested. Two were charged with "wilfully causing a building catastrophe" and by this causing death of 65 people, the third one was charged with "involuntary causing a building catastrophe." The prosecutor alleges that Jacek J. and Szczepan K. made several errors and introduced several amendments to the project that were not agreed upon. Both were aware of the fact that in January 2000 the roof buckled under the weight of the snow, yet they did not take any steps to remedy the situation and perhaps prevent the tragedy. The third architect, Andrzej W., is charged with approving the project despite its errors and deficiencies. The charges are the result of reports made by experts on building, steel constructions and reinforced concrete constructions. Pursuant to Polish law that automatically grants accused name suppression, the surnames of the accused are unavailable in Polish media.
On 14 February 2007 the Court of Appeal in Katowice granted bail to the three top bosses of the company – Bruce Robinson, Ryszard Ziółek, and Adam Hildebrandt. Mr. Robinson will have to pay a 100,000 zloty bond (approx. €25,000/$33,000/£17,000), the other two – 50,000 zloty each. All three will also remain under police supervision and will have to surrender their passports. The prosecutor has appealed against granting them bail while one of the accused has appealed against the amount. On Monday, the 5 March 2007, the Court of Appeal in Katowice rejected both appeals and at the same time raised the amount that Bruce Robinson has to deposit to 300,000 zloty (about €75,000/$100,000/£50,000). The ruling is final.
As a result of the catastrophe, in March 2007 the Polish building law was amended. Large buildings must now undergo a technical survey twice every year (before and after winter) to make sure they are safe and structurally sound. Failure to conduct the survey is punishable by a minimum 1,000 zloty fine or a term of prison.
Indictment and trial
The investigation was formally completed at the end of June 2008. The public prosecutor of the Katowice District Public Prosecutor’s Office decided to indict 12 persons. These include the designers of the hall, Jacek J. and Szczepan K., who on conviction for “directly endangering lives of other people” face up to 12 years of prison, two members of the board, Bruce Robinson and Ryszard Ziółek, and 7 other people, who on conviction for gross negligence face up to 8 years in jail, and the Chorzów County building inspector who faces lesser charges. The indictment was filed with the court on 18 July.The experts determined that the main reason for the catastrophe was incorrect project. It was changed in order to make the construction cheaper. E-mails recovered from seized computers prove that members of the Board of Directors were fully aware of the problems and of an expert’s recommendation that snow be removed from the roof and that the project is verified. One of the indicted, technical coordinator Piotr I., is charged with failing to order the evacuation doors to be opened; he is the only one that pleaded guilty. In the course of investigation it was found that none of the victims died because of locked evacuation doors.
Postmortems carried out on victims have shown that none of them died because to exposure; all died because of injuries sustained because of the collapse of the roof.
Location of MTK
There has been some confusion over whether MTK is located in Katowice or Chorzów. The registered and street addresses of the company are in Katowice, and the entrance to the grounds is from a street that belongs administratively to Katowice. However, the company’s grounds - and thus the site of the catastrophe - lie within Chorzów’s administrative boundaries. See official explanation and map of the Katowice-Chorzów boundary on the Chorzów City Council website (in Polish).Nationalities of the victims
| Nationality | |Victims |
|---|---|
| 55 | |
| 3 | |
| 3 | |
| 1 | |
| 1 | |
| 1 | |
| 1 | |
| Total | 65 |
See also
- List of Poland disasters by death toll
- Bad Reichenhall ice rink roof collapseBad Reichenhall ice rink roof collapseAt approximately 15:00 UTC on Monday 2 January 2006, in the town of Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria, Germany, near the Austrian border, the roof of a 1970s-built ice rink collapsed, possibly under the weight of heavy snowfall, trapping 50 people underneath the rubble....
– a similar incident in GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
on 2 January 2006 which killed fifteen. - Chusovoi swimming pool roof collapses after heavy snow. 5 December 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4497392.stm
- Moscow swimming pool roof collapses after heavy snow. 15 February 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3489153.stm
- Moscow market hall roof collapses after heavy snow. 23 February 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4742134.stm