"Last night we did a lot of work and cleared most of the rubble. We brought down two large fragments of the roof that were hanging over the site of the search. Rescuers reached the ground floor but, surprisingly, there were no bodies there," said a spokesman for the department.
Yesterday, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said that 9-13 bodies could still be under the debris.
At present, about 150 rescuers, special equipment, including cranes, are engaged in the rescue effort.
Mechanical pliers based constructed on an automobile basis are crushing the remains of concrete platforms. Below, several graders are at the ready. The work is interrupted now and then, as special cautious is required.
On Saturday night, the caving in of the roof left 25 people dead and over 100 injured. The total area of the collapse is over 5,000 sq. m.
