Death toll in Moscow market roof collapse reaches 57, including 1 child

Specialists have identified the bodies of 50 people killed as a result of yesterday's accident, when the snow-laden roof of the Moscow Basmanny market collapsed. Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and the Moscow Prosecutor Anatoly Zuyev arrived at the site in the morning today.

Photo: Death toll in Moscow market roof collapse reaches 57, including 1 child

Death toll in Moscow market roof collapse reaches 57, including 1 child

In the meantime, rescuers continue to clear the wreckage of the collapsed roof. About 25 cars parked near the market have been smashed with the debris. Specialists say that two people could have been killed in their car.

Twenty-three people have been hospitalized with various injuries after the roof of the Moscow Basmanny Market caved in. One person is staying in an extremely hard condition, a spokesperson for the Moscow ambulance service said.

The collapsed roof has killed 57 people, including one child. Rescuers continue searching for the bodies. “There have been no bodies left under the wreckage, but the rescuing works have not been stopped yet,” a spokeswoman for the Russian Emergency Ministry, Irina Andrianova said.

President Putin has ordered to conduct a thorough investigation of the recent tragedy in Moscow .

The rescuers continued searching for the bodies of those trapped under the collapsed roof until Friday morning. Emergency services use excavators and truck cranes to clear the site of the tragedy off the debris. Up to 1,500 people participate in the works on the site of the tragedy in Moscow .

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov is certain that the tragedy has not been caused with a terrorist act. Most likely, the construction of the roof has not been able to stand the weight of snow and ice.

The Moscow authorities guarantee that all those injured in the tragedy and the relatives of the killed people will receive financial help despite their citizenship and registration. Most of the killed in the tragedy were non-Muscovites.