Nine feared trapped after house collapse

AT LEAST nine people were feared trapped last night after the building housing Cologne’s city archive collapsed.

The building – containing documents dating back to AD 922 – collapsed at about 2pm in Cologne yesterday, taking parts of two neighbouring buildings with it.

One eye-witness reported seeing a large crack work its way up the facade from ground level until it exploded and the building “collapsed slowly, like in a bad film”.

“It felt like an earthquake; there was a huge roar and dust clouds everywhere,” said resident Mustafa Göresme on German radio. “Now the street looks like an earthquake hit it.”

Police officers with sniffer dogs inspected the site for hours yesterday, hunting for residents of the nearby buildings.

Former employees of the archive, housed in the building since 1971, said yesterday they had reported cracks in the walls as recently as last year.

“This was a predictable disaster,” said Eberhard Illner, who worked for the archive until last autumn.

“Now the authorities will have to see who’s responsible for this. We’re talking about 18 shelf kilometres of extremely valuable documents.”

As well as 65,000 documents from kaisers and popes dating to the 10th century, the archive contained more than 100,000 maps and blueprints, and 50,000 historical posters.

Police said it was too early to say if there was a connection between the collapse and the construction of an underground train tunnel.

The construction work is currently taking place under the Severinstrasse, where the building collapsed, as evidenced by a 30m-deep (98.4ft) open shaft on the street.

Four years ago, the construction work left a nearby church steeple crooked.