The snow-covered glass roof of a Moscow water park collapsed Saturday evening onto hundreds of people, killing at least 21 -- including three children -- and injuring 106, authorities said.  

Rescuers heard voices from under the rubble and were working to retrieve survivors, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said, according to the Interfax News Agency. A large crane was lifting heavy chunks of concrete and metal away from the pool area, while emergency workers used blow torches to cut through metal beams.

Initial reports said the roof at the Transvaal water park collapsed after an explosion, but officials, including Luzhkov, later said there was no evidence of a blast.

City police spokesman Pavel Kleimovsky was quoted by the ITAR-Tass News Agency as saying the roof collapsed under the weight of accumulated snow, but other reports said officials were studying whether the roof was affected by the difference between outdoor and indoor temperatures or by the condensation of water in its concrete supports.

"There was a loud noise," an unidentified witness told Russia's Channel One television. "Everybody started to run. I started to run. All of the roof over the water zone collapsed."

The roof collapsed at about 7:30 p.m. as the water park in Moscow's southwestern suburbs was filled with people basking in its heat while temperatures outside hovered around 5. About 800 people were in the complex at the time of the collapse, Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov said.

Rescue workers rushed bloodied, moaning people clad in bikinis and swim trunks on stretchers to waiting ambulances, while others clambered out barefoot into the snow.

In footage from inside the park, the NTV television station showed beams apparently made of concrete that had fallen on the park's twisting water slide. A reporter for Ekho Moskvy Radio said part of a wall also collapsed.

Fifteen people were killed and another 106 were injured, said Moscow Emergency Situation Department spokesman Yuri Vedeneyev. Three of the dead were children, Andrei Seltsovsky of the Moscow health department said, adding that 19 other children were hospitalized.

A child's birthday party was being held in the pool area when the roof collapsed, Moscow police spokesman Kirill Mazurin said.

Roman Yazymin, 29, was tanning in a solarium on the upper floors of the complex when he heard a loud noise and the crash of shattering glass.

"It wasn't an explosion, but the noise of metal collapsing," he said.

As he walked through the complex to retrieve his clothing, "everything was in blood," he said.

The accident was caused by "shortcomings in construction or shortcomings in technical maintenance," Moscow prosecutor Anatoly Zuyev said, adding that a criminal investigation would determine whether negligence was involved.

Beltsov appealed to survivors who left the scene to call a telephone hot line so emergency workers could account for all ticket-holders.

Some people initially believed the collapse was caused by an explosion, news reports said. The Russian capital has been on edge since the Feb. 6 bombing in a Moscow subway that killed 41 people and wounded more than 100. President Vladimir Putin blamed Chechen rebels for that attack.

The water park, which opened in 2002, is one of several flashy entertainment venues that have opened over the past couple of years on the city's outskirts. It includes a large pool, an artificial river and a water slide.

(China Daily February 15, 2004)