The governor of snowed over St. Petersburg dismissed 11 officials on Tuesday and deprived the heads of municipal districts of their bonuses over failure to remove snow from the streets.
Russia's second largest city has been fighting hard against record heavy snow which has left over 500 residents injured since late December. Many roofs caved in and melting snow flooded upper floor apartments. Some 100 books from the Russian National Library have also been damaged.
To tackle the threat of falling icicles, Matviyenko also proposed removing ice from rooftops using steam or a laser, giving reference to the city's high-tech potential.
"Icicles should be removed with lasers or steam. However, if St. Petersburg scientists throw up their hands and say that icicles should be removed using crowbars, we will use crowbars," the city head said.
ST. PETERSBURG, February 2 (RIA Novosti)
