Part of the roof and all but one of the floors in a five-storey university building collapsed in St Petersburg, Russia on Saturday.
There were no reported casualties, but 81 people were evacuated, said news agency AP, quoting St. Petersburg’s acting governor. The number of evacuees differed among reports.Â
The collapse happened at approximately 5pm local time on 16 February at one of the buildings of Saint Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics (ITMO University) on Lomonosova Street 9, the university said.
It described a “partial collapse of the second-through-fifth floors”.
The cause was “violations of safety rules during repair work”, according to preliminary reports, said state news agency, TASS.
According to AP, St. Petersburg acting governor Alexander Beglov said about 20 of those evacuated were foreign students attending a weekend class.
Image: Still standing: The main building of ITMO University, on Kronverksky Prospect in St. Petersburg (ITMO University/CC BY-SA 4.0)
