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Eight foreigners killed in Polish roof collapse: officials, families
CHORZOW, Poland, Jan 29 (AFP) Jan 29, 2006
At least eight foreigners were among the 66 people who died when the snow-laden roof of an exhibition hall collapsed in southern Poland, officials and relatives of the dead said Sunday.

A Dutchman who was among exhibitors at the Pigeon 2006 show in Chorzow told AFP that his father, Dick, had died in the disaster.

"He is dead," Frederic Basch said.

"Before I was able to escape, I saw his body. I have also had confirmation from the consulate."

Basch and his father had travelled to Chorzow from Deil in the Netherlands, and had a stand exhibiting pigeon food at the show. They were among some 20 Dutch racing pigeon enthusiasts at the exhibition.

"Our Polish representative died with my father," Basch told AFP.

The head of the prosecutor's office in Chorzow, Bogdan Labuzek, said that Belgian, Czech, German and Slovak nationals were among those killed in the disaster, and that "a Romanian was also among the victims who have been identified."

Renata Kasprzyk, the deputy police commander at the scene in Chorzow, earlier said the bodies of six victims still had to be identified.

The German foreign ministry said Sunday that two Germans -- a 65-year-old man and a 35-year-old woman -- were killed in the disaster, and another four were injured.

The consul general of the Czech Republic, Josep Byrtus, told AFP that two Czech nationals died when the roof of the exhibition hall caved in on Saturday, and Slovakia has reported that two of its nationals were still missing.

Late Sunday, 76 of the 141 people who were injured in the accident were still in hospital, Poland's PAP news agency said.

Thirteen of them were believed to be foreigners, Krzysztof Mejer, a spokesman for governor's office in Silesia, was cited by PAP as saying.

A rescue team with a specially trained sniffer dog will search the rubble for more bodies Monday.

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