Twelve of German ice rink victims were children

Twelve of the 15 people killed when the roof of an ice rink in southern Germany collapsed were children aged between 9 and 16, police said today.

Emergency services earlier pulled from the wreckage of the building a 15th body, identified by chief fire officer Rudi Zeif as that of a 40-year-old woman, believed to be the last victim of the disaster to be recovered.

Two other women were also killed when the roof of the more than 30-year-old ice rink collapsed on Monday amid heavy snow.

"All those missing have now been recovered," Zeif said.

Authorities said they would not lift their catastrophe alert until all the rubble had been cleared. "The search will continue until it is certain there are no other victims under the rubble who have not been reported as missing," a police statement said.

Some 50 people, enjoying the last days of their Christmas holidays, were inside the building when the roof gave way. Eighteen survivors required hospital treatment.

All the dead and injured came from the area around Bad Reichenhall, a Bavarian town close to the Austrian border. One victim was a national of Uzbekistan, police said on Thursday.

Questions about the causes of the accident swirled amid fears similar disasters could happen elsewhere in the harsh winter weather conditions.

An ice hockey club training session scheduled for late Monday was cancelled just minutes before the disaster, apparently because of concern about the amount of snow on the roof of the building.

The mayor of Bad Reichenhall, Wolfgang Heitmaier, has denied the structure, completed in 1972, was a known risk.

"The roof was not in urgent need of repair, no one has said that, experts have supported this," he said on Wednesday.

State prosecutors said on Thursday it would take weeks if not months to determine the cause of the disaster.

Construction Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee said he would ask all 16 German states to discuss next month what steps should be taken to make sure public buildings are safe.

Germany's association of engineering consultants expressed doubt cash-strapped local authorities would be prepared to meet the cost of bringing older buildings up to modern standards.

"The examination of buildings more than 30 years old is a demanding task which must be carried out by trained specialists," the association said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Such studies cost money that property owners in Germany aren't keen to shoulder voluntarily," it added.

- REUTERS