Snow causes roof collapse

The roof of a sports centre used for ice skating events at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Bosnia collapsed yesterday under the weight of heavy snow.

The Skenderija sports centre in Sarajevo was closed and no-one was inside when the roof collapsed yesterday afternoon.

A policeman guarding the site said it sounded like an explosion and surrounding shop windows were broken.

The Skenderija centre, made up of three different complexes, was built in 1969 and used during the Olympics for both figure skating and ice hockey.

For more than a week, Bosnia has been paralysed by record snowfalls.

Up to three feet of snow fell yesterday in Sarajevo with temperatures as low as -22 C.