The bottom came out from under a house on Krupska street in downtown Zagreb recently, leaving nine people homeless, and forcing 61 to evacuate, but causing no casualties.
Excavation for the construction of an underground parking garage caused the collapse. Croatian news source Javno reports that the city company ran out of money during the project and left the garage incomplete.
Several days ago tenants noticed water running under the building and felt tremors, and alerted the city. They said technicians arrived to shut off the water but didn’t look into the cause of the problem.
Police are currently warning passerby away from the area because of the possibility of cranes used in the construction collapsing into the 17 meter deep hole.
Tremors from the construction began at 2 am and the houses were evacuated at noon. Shortly after the evacuation was completed, the house collapsed into the hole.
Zagreb mayor Milan Bandic arrived on the scene shortly after the collapse and was confronted by angry tenants who claimed they had already reported feeling tremors to the mayor and city but that they did nothing. Evacuated tenants will be placed in a hostel until they can make other arrangements, Bandic instructed tenants to take only what they could carry and not to loiter in the street.
Photo from www.javno.com