Victim search ends with 54 dead in Latvia store cave-in

Latvian firefighters today wound down their search for victims of a supermarket cave-in, four days after the tragedy killed 54 in the capital Riga.
"No more bodies were found" since Saturday, state fire and rescue service spokeswoman Viktorija Sembele told AFP, confirming the search was over.
Latvia observed three minutes of silence today to honour those killed, including three firefighters, when two sections of the roof at the Maxima supermarket caved in on Thursday.
It was the last of three days of national mourning, with many in the small Baltic state of two million people still reeling from the disaster, among Europe's worst in decades.

Officials are now focused on pinning down the cause after President Andris Berzins minced no words Saturday in calling the deaths the "mass murder of defenceless people".
Latvian police are pursuing three theories on what caused the disaster: building design, construction method and new roof additions.

Local media have widely quoted an independent foreign-based expert who said "design flaws" in the system of bolts used on the roof were to blame.
"We must identify the people responsible and the reasons why this happened," Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis said today.
The investigation will be led by Riga Technical University, with the possible help of foreign experts, the interior minister said.

Riga Mayor Nils Usakovs also announced plans to launch a parallel probe by investigative journalists and pro-transparency organisations.
"It is clear that the system must be changed and the public must be satisfied that this case will be investigated in an impartial and objective manner," Usakovs told reporters.
Economy Minister Daniels Pavluts called for a drastic overhaul of building regulations.
"There are many shortcomings in how the building industry in our country actually works. The way the law is implemented by the industry players appears to be the problem," Pavluts told AFP.