NOVI SAD, Serbia (AP) — A concrete roof above the entrance of a railway station in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad collapsed Friday, killing at least 14 people with more feared buried under the rubble, officials said.
Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said that three people were rescued and hospitalized with serious injuries, and that the death toll could rise further. He said that for those killed, “Death occurred on the spot.”
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic confirmed in a national address that 14 people had died, including a 6-year-old girl and a citizen of North Macedonia. Vucic said five of the victims still had not been identified.
The train station has been renovated twice in recent years, and critics of the authoritarian president attributed the disaster to corruption and sloppy renovations on the part of his administration. Members of the opposition planned to protest in front of the station Saturday.
However, Vucic said the canopy had not been part of the recent renovations, and pledged to determine both the "political and criminal responsibility” for the collapse.
Ambulances and other emergency teams were dispatched to the downtown station and bulldozers were removing the debris looking for survivors. Some 80 rescuers were at the scene as heavy machinery removed large parts of the rubble.
Surveillance camera footage showed people moving in and out of the building and sitting on benches on a bright, sunny day before the concrete canopy suddenly collapsed.
Serbia’s government declared Saturday a day of mourning. Residents of Novi Sad were lighting candles across the street from the railway station in an expression of grief for the lost lives.
“This is a black Friday for us, for all of Serbia," Prime Minister Milos Vucevic said.
Vucevic said the roof was built in 1964 and that an investigation was underway to determine what happened and who is responsible for the tragedy.
The renovated station was inaugurated by Vucic and his populist ally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, over two years ago as a major stopover for a planned fast train line between Belgrade and Budapest.
Serbia’s state railway company said the accident happened at 11:50 a.m. local time. The company said the structure above the station entrance was not touched during the recent renovations.
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AP writers Jovana Gec and Dusan Stojanovic contributed from Belgrade.
Ivana Bzganovic, The Associated Press