Six dead, dozens feared trapped in Latvia supermarket collapse

By Aija Braslina RIGA (Reuters) - Six people, including two firefighters, were killed and dozens more were feared trapped after the roof of a busy supermarket in Latvia's capital, Riga, collapsed on Thursday evening, a rescue official said. TV pictures showed the Maxima store surrounded by fire trucks and ambulances with rescue workers using their hands and crowbars to pull away rubble from inside the single-storey concrete and glass building. "There are six people dead, four of them are shop clients and two are firefighters," Latvian rescue service spokeswoman Viktorija Sembele told Reuters. "Thirty-five people have been injured." It was unclear how many people remained trapped in the store. Earlier news agency RIA Novosti quoted Riga Mayor Nils Usakovs as saying 70 people were trapped in the building. Latvian TV said three cranes were working to remove concrete blocks from the roof so firemen could get to those inside, but that rescue services feared another collapse. Latvia's Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis told Latvian TV it was clear the rescue work would go on for many hours. The country's police will launch an investigation into the disaster. "It is clear that there has been a problem with fulfillment of construction requirements," Interior Minister Rihards Kozlovskis told Latvian TV by telephone. Local media said workers had been building a roof garden on the store. The supermarket's roof fell in at around 6 p.m. local time (1700 GMT) when the store was busy with shoppers on their way home from work. Rescue workers were called to the store, situated in the midst of grey, Soviet-era housing in a suburb of the capital, and several were injured when they were caught by a second cave-in of the weakened structure. More than 60 soldiers were helping with the rescue effort, the country's army said on its official Twitter feed. Police sniffer dogs were searching for people still trapped. At least two people had been pulled alive from the ruins. "Just a moment ago a woman and a firefighter were freed from rubble," Sembele said at around 11 p.m. local time. Local media reported that the Maxima supermarket, estimated at around 500 square meters (5,380 square feet) in size, had been awarded an architecture prize when it was completed in 2011. Latvia, which joins the euro zone from the start of next year, has been recording strong economic growth after a deep recession in the years following the global credit crisis. But it remains one of the poorest countries in Europe, the legacy of nearly 50 years of Soviet rule that came to an end in 1991. (Reporting by Aija Braslina; Editing by Alistair Scrutton, Ralph Boulton and Eric Walsh)