The Latvian president has
described the collapse of a supermarket in the capital Riga as
"murder".
Andris Berzins said many defenceless people had been
killed in "our own made disaster", and called for foreign experts to
investigate what happened.
Fifty-four people have died since part of the roof
collapsed on Thursday, and at least seven people remain missing.
Late on Saturday afternoon, the last remaining section of
the roof caved in, causing panic in the surrounding area.
Officials have said soil and materials from a garden being
built on the roof of the shop may have caused Thursday's collapse.
Latvia
has begun three days of national mourning for the deadliest disaster since the
former Soviet republic gained independence in 1991.
"These three days of mourning are very necessary to
go from the mindset of helplessness to rethinking what each of us has done so
that we can act in practical manner, because this is an event where we must
clearly say that this is a large scale murder of many defenceless people and
act accordingly," President Berzins told public LTV broadcaster.
He said an investigation should be held at "maximum
speed".
And he went on to say: "While not undermining the
professionalism of our builders, I believe that we should call upon international
expertise which is in no way connected with our construction business.
"We cannot call it a natural accident, because nature
wasn't involved. The evening was calm and silent with a little fog. This is our
own made disaster."
Latvian
families hold each other and cry, as they lay flowers beside a huge pile of
rubble. The remains of supermarket shelves and shop goods, such as toilet
rolls, poke out from the broken stones.
But alongside the sorrow, a new feeling is starting to emerge.
Anger. A fierce debate has broken out about who is to blame.
In a no-holds barred interview given to Latvian
television, President Andris Berzins described the tragedy as the "mass
murder" of innocent civilians.
He said the tragedy shouldn't be called an accident
because the deaths were not caused by an act of nature.
And he said the criminal probe should be led by
independent investigators from abroad - implying that powerful business
interests in Latvia are too closely entwined with politics to ensure a fair and
honest investigation.
Questions surround whether safety standards were ignored
when this building was constructed in 2011; or whether work on a roof garden,
which was being built on top of the store, was carried out in a negligent
manner.
As
rescuers searched the ruins of the Maxima supermarket at around 16:00 local
time (14:00 GMT) on Saturday the final section of the roof collapsed.
The BBC's Damien McGuinness said it caused the
neighbouring building from where he was reporting - a shopping centre - to
shake violently.
People in the shopping centre at the time panicked and ran
out into the street amid fears it too would collapse, he said.
There were no reports of any fatalities. Our correspondent
says only the four walls of the supermarket remain standing.
The rescue service immediately suspended operations until
Sunday morning, saying it wanted to consult engineers about the risk of further
collapse.
Until that point, rescue teams had been working round the
clock, digging in the wreckage of the single-storey concrete and glass building
to see if anyone was still trapped inside.
They periodically turned off all their equipment and asked
the families of missing people to phone their relatives so they could pinpoint
the ring tones in the debris.
Ten families have told the police that they believe their
loved ones could be under the rubble, our correspondent says.
But, 48 hours on, hopes of finding anyone else alive are
fading, he adds. By Saturday evening the death toll had risen from 52 to 54.
Three firefighters and two Russians are confirmed to be
among the dead.
Many people have been laying flowers and lighting candles
at the site of the tragedy.
Thirteen firefighters were among some 40 wounded, and 29
people were in hospital as of Saturday morning, the fire and rescue service
said.
The initial collapse happened just before 18:00 (16:00
GMT) on Thursday, when the Maxima store was busy with customers.
About 20 minutes later another part of the roof caved in,
trapping rescue workers who were trying to reach survivors.
Witnesses
said customers tried to run out after the first part of the roof collapsed but
the supermarket's electronic doors closed, trapping them inside.
A rooftop garden with children's playground was being
built on the top of the building. There is speculation it may have been unable
to support the large amount of building materials and soil that was believed to
be on the roof at the time.
Local media said the building, rented by the Maxima chain,
had been awarded a national architecture prize when it was completed in 2011.
But the inquiry will now investigate whether building
regulations were broken.
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