NOVI SAD, Serbia (AP) — Hundreds of people lit candles and left flowers and toys Saturday in memory of the 14 people killed when a concrete canopy struck the entrance to a train station in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad. I placed it.
Residents of Novi Sad stood silently in grief, holding placards with the names of the victims, opposite the train station where the roof fell on people on Friday. The youngest was a 6-year-old girl.
Many were weeping quietly, and visitors said they could not understand how such a tragedy could occur and called for answers from authorities. Three people remained injured Saturday in life-threatening conditions.
“The first thing I felt was anger that we were letting amateurs run this country,” Natasa Belich said. “And because I know for a fact that no one will be held accountable and that responsibility will be placed on completely unrelated people.”
The long concrete canopy suddenly collapsed around noon on Friday as people were sitting on benches or walking in and out. Surveillance camera footage on Friday showed the canopy collapsing within seconds.
The Serbian government declared Saturday a day of mourning as authorities promised a thorough investigation into Friday’s collapse. Prosecutors said they were questioning everyone involved, including government ministers.
The station has been renovated twice in recent years, and critics of Serbia’s populist government blame corruption and sloppy renovations for the disaster. Opposition politician Marinika Tepic said on Saturday: “This is not an accident, this is murder!”
In the Serbian capital Belgrade, the liberal opposition Green Left Front threw red paint outside the Serbian government headquarters, sending the message: “Your hands are covered in blood.”
Officials insisted that the canopy was not part of the renovation work. Goran Besic, the government’s minister of construction and infrastructure, told state-run RTS television that the tragedy would not have happened if the canopy had also been renovated.
Authorities sent heavy equipment and about 80 rescue workers who struggled for hours to remove much of the concrete. Rescue efforts continued late Friday night, as bulldozers plowed through tons of debris outside the building.
Mila Stanković, a Novi Sad resident who also came to the wake, said she now felt in danger. “I feel terrible, I’m anxious, I feel fear inside.” She said she no longer trusts trains, tunnels and bridges.
The railway station, including the canopy, was built in 1964. The renovation work is Chinese company.
The renovated station opened at President Aleksandar Vucic More than two years ago, it was visited by his populist ally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, as it was a key stop on a planned high-speed rail line between Belgrade and Budapest.
