Polish roof collapse kills at least 26, injures at least 130

KATOWICE, Poland -- The snow-covered roof of a convention hall in southern Poland collapsed Saturday with as many as 500 people inside for a racing pigeon exhibition, killing at least 26 people and injuring at least 130.

A priest outside the building's entrance prayed over the bodies of an adult and a child covered by a blanket and a tarp, as rescue crews worked frantically through the night in subfreezing temperatures to save those trapped inside. Witnesses said people beneath the wreckage were calling family or emergency services on their cell phones for help.

"Twenty-six are dead, 130 wounded," said Krzysztof Mejer, a spokesman for the government of the Silesia region.

Franciszek Kowal escaped onto a terrace when he saw the roof starting to fall, then jumped about 15 feet to safety.

"People tried to break windows in order to get out," Kowal said. "People were hitting the panes with chairs, but the windows were unbreakable. One of the panes finally broke, and they started to get out by the window."

Fire brigade chaplain Capt. Henryk Kuczob, a Roman Catholic priest, said he gave last rites to one of the injured, a 50-year-old man who later died.

"A second man was taken to the hospital," Kuczob said. "His 13-year-old daughter is dead, but he doesn't know that yet. He's in shock."

"There are still a lot of people trapped in there, some half-frozen."

The weight of snow likely caused the roof to cave in at about 5:30 p.m., less than two hours before the event was scheduled to close for the evening, Katowice fire brigade spokesman Jaroslaw Wojtasik said.

Hundreds of firefighters responded along with search-and-rescue teams with dogs and local miner rescue teams, Wojtasik said. Some 30 people gathered in a building next to the site awaiting news of their loved ones.

Even passers-by pitched in.

Zbigniew Chmurzynski said he was on his way back from the movies with his wife when they came upon the collapse. He said he raced home for his Labrador retriever, then headed back to the site.

"My dog found two unconscious people," he said. "I just hope they'll survive."

Temperatures dropped to 5 degrees after midnight and were expected to keep falling.

Rescue workers pumped warm air into the ruin for those feared trapped inside, as crews dug into the wreckage with saws and other equipment, using flashlights and floodlights. The firefighters also used jacks to stabilize some of the building's beams as they attempted to get to those trapped.

"Inside are people who are alive but have broken limbs or other injuries," Wojtasik said. "We can't use any heavy equipment."

He estimated the rescue effort could take another 40 hours.

An unidentified woman with bandages around her head, a bloodied chin and scrapes on her face told TVN24 from her hospital bed that she feared one of her friends was dead.

"I heard a snap like breaking matches as the roof fell on everybody. Then I heard an unbelievable scream, and then I tried to escape like everybody else," she said. "Something fell on me, I turned around, somebody stepped on me, but on my knees I was able to get out. I still don't know where some of my friends are and I haven't had any contact with them -- most likely one of them is dead."

The "Pigeon 2006" fair was made up of more than 120 exhibitors, including groups from Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Ukraine and Poland, according to the fair's Web site.

The Jan. 27-29 fair was expecting a total of some 55,000 guests, customers and visitors. A spokeswoman for the fair did not answer her phone.

Grzegorz Slyszyk, who said he was an attorney for building management, said the structure, built in 2000, could not have collapsed from the snow because excess snow was regularly cleared from the roof.

"The snow was last removed two weeks ago, and since then there hasn't been much snow," he said. "Definitely, it's too early to speculate on a cause."

Katowice, some 200 miles south of Warsaw in a mining region, has been hit with the same heavy snow this winter that has been plaguing much of eastern and central Europe.

On Friday, snow caused a town hall's roof to collapse in the southern Austrian town of Mariazell, though no injuries were reported.

On Jan. 2, the snow-covered roof of a skating rink collapsed, killing 15 people, including 12 children in the German Alpine spa town of Bad Reichenhall.

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Associated Press Writer Monika Scislowska contributed to this report from Bialka Tatrzanska, Poland, and Ryan Lucas from Warsaw.