Shopping center and supermarkets evacuated in Riga amid collapse fears

  • 2013-12-06
  • From wire reports, RIGA

Maxima and Rimi both closed down supermarkets on Dec. 6 (photo by LETA)

Two supermarkets have been shut down and evacuated in Riga amid construction fears, a construction board says.

The Maxima supermarket in the Sahara center on Lubanas Street and the Rimi supermarket at Augusta Deglava Street closed on Dec. 6 after Riga City Council construction board said there were threats to load carrying capacity.

Later, the Wended Baltika shopping center which hosts the Rimi supermarket announced it had shut down amid construction fears also.

Customers and staff were evacuated from the Maxima supermarket following the announcement, reports nozare.lv.

Experts have been called to the scene to inspect the supermarket whilst they will remain closed until further announcement, supermarket official said.

Latvian construction company Re&Re, who was the main contractor on the collapsed Maxima store in Zolitude, has not done any construction work on Rimi and Maxima supermarkets at the stores, a Re&Re spokeswoman said.

She said: “We have never done any construction work in the Sahara shopping center at Lubanas Street 117. At Augusta Deglava Street 110, we constructed some stores inside the building in 2000; however, this work had nothing to do with load carrying capacity,”

At least 54 people died and dozens were injured after the Maxima supermarket in Riga's Zolitude neighborhood collapsed on Nov. 21.