A roof collapse at a train station in Serbia has killed at least 13 people.

A concrete roof above the entrance to a train station in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad collapsed on Friday, killing at least 13 people.

Three more people were rescued and taken to hospital with serious injuries, and it is feared that several more people were killed.

“There will probably be several more people (dead),” Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said.

“After the first eight (victims), we saw five more from whom we could determine whether they were alive or dead, but we did not want to make any statements until they were pulled out (from the rubble). Unfortunately, they were dead,” he added.

Earlier Friday, rescuers made contact with two people still buried under piles of concrete. Both were successfully rescued, he said.

The Serbian government declared Saturday a day of mourning. All public events planned for the weekend in Novi Sad have been cancelled, authorities said.

Questions raised regarding recent renovations

Ambulances and other emergency crews were sent to the city center station while bulldozers cleared the wreckage in search of survivors. About 80 rescuers worked at the scene, with heavy equipment clearing most of the rubble.

The building in Novi Sad, the capital of the Vojvodina province, has recently been renovated.

Prime Minister Milos Vucevic said that “this is Black Friday for us, for all of Serbia.”

Vucevic said the roof was built in 1964 and an investigation is currently underway to determine what happened and who is responsible for the tragedy.

Serbia’s state railway company, Železnice Srbije, said the accident occurred at 11:50. The company said construction above the station entrance was not part of the recent redevelopment of the station building.

In response to calls for his resignation, Infrastructure Minister Goran Vesic also said that the building permit for the renovation did not include an external canopy.

However, Serbian experts noted to domestic media that the renovation work could have caused structural changes in the building, which indirectly led to the collapse of the roof.