Roof collapses at Russian cosmodrome, at least 10 feared dead

At least 10 people were killed on Sunday when a roof collapsed at Russia's Baikonur Space Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Russian Television reported, though other media said the victims could still be alive under the debris. Three sections of a roof at the cosmodrome, which Russia uses for launching space satellites and rockets, collapsed from a height of around 70 to 100 metres at approximately 1250 IST, Interfax quoted the emergency situations ministry as saying.

But there were conflicting reports about the gravity of the accident, with Itar-Tass saying that the Russian space agency had dispatched a rescue team to the site to help recover victims trapped in the building.

Space agency spokesman Sergey Gorbunov would only tell Itar-Tass that there were definitely casualties as a result of the roof collapse.

Russian news agencies said that a maintenance crew of at least eight people was carrying out repairs on the building, constructed in the soviet era for assembling and launching the Buran Shuttle, at the time of the accident.
Bureau Report