Serbia railway station roof collapse kills 14, two women rescued

Emergency and rescue teams working at the site where a concrete outdoor roof of a train station collapsed in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad. Photo / AFP

Rescue workers are scouring piles of concrete and twisted metal for survivors after a roof collapsed at the entrance to a railway station in the Serbian city of Novi Sad, killing 14 people.

Cranes and bulldozers helped sift through the wreckage alongside dozens of rescuers and construction workers, while medical staff and ambulances waited nearby.

The collapse of a 35m length of roofing occurred on Friday at noon local time on a sunny day in the city about 70km northwest of the capital, Belgrade.

Bodies were pulled from the rubble throughout the afternoon and into the evening.

“Our windows were open as it was warm outside and I heard a huge rumble and saw a plume of dust, that’s all I saw. Later I heard what happened,” said Vera, an 86-year-old pensioner who lives about 200m away.

Earlier in the afternoon rescuers freed two women who had been trapped under the rubble. They were in critical condition, said Vesna Turkulov, the head of the Vojvodina Medical Centre where they were taken.

The search and rescue operation was complicated by the sheer weight of the concrete and was expected to continue through the night, said Luka Causic who heads the interior ministry’s centre for emergency management.

Interior Minister Ivica Dacic told Tanjug news agency earlier he did not expect the death toll to rise significantly.

Five of those killed have not yet been identified, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said, promising justice.

“It is difficult to say anything meaningful,” he said in a televised address. “As the president of Serbia I demand that all those who are responsible for this are ... punished.”

Train departures were halted from the station, according to the N1 news channel, which reported that a building reconstruction had been completed but the part of the roof that collapsed had not been included in the project.

“This is a black Friday for all of Serbia and Novi Sad,” Prime Minister Milos Vucevic told reporters.

“Regardless of the fact that this building was constructed in 1964, we will insist that those responsible for this tragedy are identified.”