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CNN SUNDAY MORNING

Roof Collapse at Water Park in Moscow Kills at Least 26

Aired February 15, 2004 - 07:33   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: A tragic accident in Moscow. At least 26 people are dead after a roof collapsed at a popular water park there. For the very latest, we go to our Ryan Chilcote, who joins us via videophone from Moscow.
Ryan, what happened?

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Heidi, this is now the 21st hour of that rescue effort. It was yesterday evening, when the roof collapsed here at the Transvaal Aqua Park, the water park here in Moscow's really one of a kind place here in Moscow. There were a lot of people there yesterday. They sold more than 1300 tickets.

And there is a frantic rescue effort underway. Rescue officials using some cranes and many of them using their bare hands and shovels to go through the debris. They say they've gotten through about half of the debris at this point. They're not focusing on an area right around one of the children's swimming pools inside.

Rescue officials say that they are looking for at least 10 people, although they could be looking for many, many more. That because a lot of the clothing lockers inside still have clothes in them. The hope, of course, is that many of the people when the roof began to collapse, ran outside and didn't take their clothes with them, but they are looking for at least 10.

Now this is a tragedy by all standards already at this point. Already 26 people dead, according to Russian rescue officials. And more than 90 people in Moscow hospitals. A good third of them, Heidi, children.

COLLINS: Ryan, just curious, if you can tell us anything about, you know, the architecture. Obviously, this was a glass roof in a place where it does snow a lot. Are there many glass roofs like this, best you can tell, in the city?

CHILCOTE: Yes, believe it or not, Heidi, there actually are. And usually, it's not a problem, people say. It's easy enough, they say, when you're designing roofs like this, to take into account any snow that might fall on it. What a lot of the architects that are talking now are saying is that perhaps there was some kind of miscalculation in terms of the temperature. Perhaps there was a big drop in the temperature. The difference between the temperature inside and the temperature outside was very cold here yesterday. Just about 0 degrees Fahrenheit. So perhaps that is what had played a role in this. At least at this point, all the rescue officials are focusing on the construction of this building as the cause for the collapse of the roof.

COLLINS: All right, I imagine they are. All right, very good. Ryan Chilcote, thanks so much. Live via videophone from Moscow.

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