Moscow to Experience More Tragedies?

It is rumored in the city that troubles are typical of this year because the year of 2004 is a leap-year
At about 10:50 a.m. last Saturday, the roof of a parking lot belonging to the Moscow "Metro" store in Dmitrovskoye Shosse collapsed. As a result of the incident, three people were sent to hospital with injuries, basically fractures, five more victims were rendered medical aid right on the incident site. Eight cars were seriously damaged as a result of the tragedy.

Another incident occurred at about 1:30 p.m. Sunday. People were surprised to see fountains of dirty cold water spurt out from under the ground in Shabolovskaya Street near Danilovskaya Square; soon water flooded the roadway and the pavements. The incident occurred because of a break in a pipeline with the diameter of 900 millimeters. Soon the water inrush flooded the whole of Danilovskaya Square and turned it into a small lake. The nearby passages and streets soon looked like a system of dirty rivers. The water level reached 50-100 centimeters in some areas. At that, storm discharges were stuffed with rubbish. Cars parked near a store had their wheels deep in water. Water flows picked up one of the cars in the area with the highest water level and moved it several meters ahead. The incident turned out to be quite a trouble for people staying in the area at that moment: they had to get out of buses and trams and seek refuge in many-storied buildings standing nearby. An underground passage under Serpukhovskoy Val was flooded almost to the pavement level. It was rumored the vestibule of Tulskaya subway station might be flooded as well, however the information was not confirmed at Moscow's emergency situation department.

Soon, emergency services came to the incident site. Some streets were blocked and others, where the asphalt was washed out, were covered with sand. The pipeline was blocked in three hours and pumping out of water began.

So many troubles over one weekend have absolutely discouraged Muscovites. It is rumored in the city that troubles are typical of this year because the year of 2004 is a leap-year. It is even said that more troubles will occur within the nearest ten months. People are now indignant at negligent officials who are responsible for nothing. It seems that following the pool tragedy and the collapse of the hypermarket parking lot's roof many other buildings and roofs may collapse, gas and water pipes may get burst and Moscow will face hard times.

Based on reports of Russian mass media