Poland begins three days of mourning after trade hall collapsed

Poland has begun three days of mourning after a trade hall collapsed in the city of Katowice, killing at least 66 people and injuring many more. Rescuers have now ended the search for survivors in the southern city. The government says the roof may have collapsed under the weight of snow, but a lawyer for the company that runs the hall says the snow had been cleared.

The nation is in shock after what the president called Saturday's catastrophe, correspondents say. Foreigners including Germans and Belgians were among the 66 confirmed dead and 150 injured in the hall, which had been hosting an event for world pigeon enthusiasts.

Flags are flying at half-mast, as the country tries to come to terms with the scale of the tragedy. Television presenters are dressed in black and the state channel has stopped running adverts. In this deeply religious nation, people have been pouring into churches for comfort and support since Saturday's tragedy, the BBC's Adam Easton in Katowice says.

One survivor at the site on Sunday was desperately trying to find out where his son's body had been taken. "It was his idea to come to the fair... and he found his grave there," Tadeusz Dlugosz said. Heavy lifting equipment is due to begin removing the tangled wreckage, as rescuers believe there is no chance of pulling anyone else out alive. The focus is already shifting to how the tragedy occurred, our correspondent says. Government officials have said two feet of heavy snow and ice were on the roof when it caved in. But Grzegorz Slyszyk, a lawyer for the firm that runs the building, said the snow had been cleared.

Mr Slyszyk said mistakes were made during the construction of the building seven years ago and it was still too early to say what caused the disaster. Another theory is that the extreme cold caused steel beams to fail.

A central section of the roof collapsed at 1730 local time (1630GMT) on Saturday. A second collapse came more than an hour later, during rescue operations. The death toll rose as hundreds of rescuers with sniffer dogs worked through the night in bitter cold.

A surgeon in charge of a medical team at the site said the sheet metal of the building's remains had acted like a freezer. One survivor described the scenes of panic and chaos immediately after the roof collapsed, reports BBC news. I.L.