Rescue teams yesterday morning restarted the search for missing people after the collapse of the Cologne’s six-story city archive center and two neighboring buildings.
Overnight, police lowered the number of missing people to two, while other reports spoke of five missing. Earlier, police had spoken of nine missing, but subsequently lowered the number.
Rescuers worked during the night to prevent the building from subsiding further, while firemen started to retrieve documents from the basement of an adjoining building that was not destroyed in the collapse.
A police spokesman said sniffer dogs used to search the rubble for those still missing may have detected victims. Rescue efforts could only begin when rubble from the roof had been removed, for which heavy machinery was needed.
“A quick rescue is not possible,” director of Cologne’s fire department Stefan Neuhoff said, but it was unlikely that there were any air holes in the rubble.
Speculation about the cause of the collapse is focused on new building work for the city’s underground transit system, which runs directly below the archives.
Meanwhile, staff members accused the city authorities of having ignored earlier reports of damage to the building.
City authorities rejected the accusations, saying that expert studies dating from December said that cracks in the building did not affect its structural integrity.
In addition to possible human casualties, the damage to the city’s historical archives was immense.
The archive building collapsed at about 2pm on Tuesday, ripping open and dragging down parts of two adjacent buildings that contained apartments and an amusement arcade. A huge cloud of dust enveloped the site.
Alerted by rumbling sounds that preceded the collapse, all staff and visitors at the Cologne archive were able to get out in time.
Parents at a nearby fast-food outlet grabbed their children and ran.
“I heard a giant bang and then suddenly saw this giant gray dust cloud,” said Mustafa Goresme, 18, who watched from the restaurant.
Florian Hacke, who lives two buildings away, said he ran outside after he heard a creaking noise and cracks opened up in his ceiling.
Work was being done on a new subway line under the street on which the building stood. The roof of the subway construction site also collapsed, but officials said they did not believe anyone was trapped in there.
Subway project leader Rolf Papst also said there had been no major work in the last 30 days.
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