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Toll in Pool Collapse Rises to 14

An April video grab of the swimming pool where the roof collapsed Sunday. Soyuz TV
The snow-covered roof of a swimming pool in the Perm region collapsed onto parents and children in a deluge of concrete and metal, killing 14 people, including 10 children, officials said Monday.

The accident occurred Sunday in the town of Chusovoi. Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov said 14 people were killed and 11 people remained hospitalized.

The 10 dead children ranged in age from 3 to 13. Most visitors were parents with children, basking in the warm water as a respite from biting frost and snow outside.

"We were swimming close to each other," Roman Guzenko, a bruised survivor, said from his hospital bed in televised remarks. "It collapsed in a fraction of a second. We didn't even understand what happened."

Guzenko's wife survived the accident with grave injuries, but their 4-year-old son died in the collapse.

Investigators were looking into whether fluctuations in temperature or a recent heavy snowfall could have caused the roof to collapse. "The quality of concrete was very poor," said Ivan Kumanyov, the head of the local branch of the Emergency Situations Ministry.

He said that the steel carcass and 45 slabs of concrete fell on the swimmers, covering an area of about 400 square meters. Rescuers using heavy cranes worked for more than 15 hours to remove all the bodies from under a mass of mangled steel and concrete.

The incident echoed a similar collapse at Moscow's Transvaal water park in February 2004, in which 28 died.

Channel One television said the pool in Chusovoi had been checked for safety and declared safe after the Transvaal accident.

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