The roof structure of the railway station in Novi Sad collapsed in Serbia on Friday around 11:50, several people died, according to the city’s mayor, at least 30 were injured, writes the Serbian Nova and it is N1 Info news portal. All the rescue units of the area and the firefighters are working continuously on the scene, people were rescued from under the collapsed building, and work machines also arrived to remove the ruins. The operations continued after dark, but the rescue work ended before ten o’clock in the evening. The Prosecutor General’s Office of Novi Sad has started the investigation in cooperation with several authorities.
According to the announcement of the Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Novi Sad on Friday evening, the number of people killed in the accident has risen to fourteen.
As of press time, they have not yet managed to find out the identity of five of them, the other eight are Serbian citizens, and one person is from North Macedonia. Three people are being treated in hospital, all three are in a very serious condition, one of them had his leg amputated. Among the dead is a six-year-old child.
According to an eyewitness, everything suddenly collapsed, it was a terrifying sight, as if an explosion had occurred. According to the Minister of the Interior, the rescue operation is extremely difficult, which is why it will certainly take a few more hours, and he promised continuous information on this. Nearly 80 rescuers from several cities take part in the rescue. Many residents of Novi Sad applied to donate blood, 145 people by noon, and since then more than 300 residents have given blood. Volunteers lined up in the corridors of hospitals, and off-duty health workers applied for work.
A Serbian news agency Tanjug he wrote, at least two must still be trapped under the ruins. According to the Minister of the Interior, they were able to get in touch with them – one of them is a woman, the other is a girl around 20 years old, and they can communicate with her continuously.
Five hours after the collapse, the girl was rescued, and shortly before five in the afternoon, the other person trapped in the rubble was also rescued and taken to the hospital.
The mayor of Novi Sad, Milan Đurić, rushed to the train station as soon as he received the news about the collapse of the roof structure. “I am very sorry that this tragedy happened in Novi Sad. Once the authorities have completed their investigation, we will inform the public of the next steps. The city is in constant contact with the relevant authorities and is taking all necessary steps. At the moment, all our attention is focused on providing assistance to those involved in the accident,” reads the in the announcement of the town hall.
According to the announcement of the railway company, the canopy was torn off on the old building of the railway station, not on the one that was renovated due to the construction of the Belgrade-Budapest railway line, only internal renovations were carried out on this part, and the facade was renovated. The joint CRIC-CCCC company consortium with the Chinese emphasized in a statement that the works were carried out strictly in accordance with the building permit.
Serbian Prime Minister Miloš Vučević said that this was one of the most difficult days in Novi Sad that he had experienced since the war. He called what happened a terrible tragedy and expressed his condolences to the relatives. A day of mourning was declared for Saturday, and several events planned for today and the weekend were canceled due to the accident in Novi Sad.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó he posted about it before five o’clock in the afternoonthat he assured Marko Đurić, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia, of the sympathy of the Hungarian people in a telegram, and spoke on the phone with Bálint Pásztor, the president of the Association of Vojvodina Hungarians, assuring those who lost their loved ones of his sympathy, and at the same time wished the injured a speedy recovery.
Slaven Tica, Director General of the Transport Institute of Serbia he told Tanjugthat all rules were followed during the renovation of the station building. The canopy that has just collapsed was not included in the design documentation, so it was not part of the reconstruction. Based on the available information and the photos taken on the spot, it can be seen that the entire structure gave way, but the reason for this cannot yet be determined.
Novi Sad is the second most populous city in Serbia, the seat of the Vojvodina province, with around 380,000 people living here, including the suburbs. It is an hour’s drive from the Hungarian border. The Novi Vidék station is part of the Budapest-Belgrade railway line, according to MTI, it was not the renovated part of the building that collapsed, but the roof structure of the old part of the station, which had not been renovated since 1965. In this article, we wrote in detail about the railway development that fits into the European expansion plan of the Chinese.
