22 November 2013
Last updated at 20:00 ET
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Riga resident Gatis Smagars: "Bags of soil and cobblestones piled on roof"
Rescuers in Latvia's capital Riga are spending a second night sifting through the rubble of a supermarket that collapsed, killing dozens of people.
But they admit that hopes of finding any more survivors inside the Maxima supermarket are fading.
Officials say the weight of soil from a garden being built on the roof of the shop may have caused it to fall in.
Thursday's collapse, which killed 51 people, is Latvia's deadliest disaster since it became independent in 1991.
Survivor's story
Rescue teams are working round the clock at the Maxima, digging in to the wreckage of the single-storey concrete and glass building to see if anyone is still trapped inside.
Continue reading the main story
A huge pile of rubble in the centre of Riga has become a shrine. Latvians are commemorating those killed by entwining flowers in the metal police barriers.
And a long row of flickering graveyard candles skirts round the wreckage.
Many of the people here have come to mourn. But others are on a vigil, hoping that their missing relatives will somehow appear from the wreckage.
As the death toll rises, those people become fewer and fewer. One young man has been here since Thursday evening, staring into the ruins, waiting for news of his disabled sister who is presumed to be under the rubble.
And nearby a teenage girl told me that her 18-year-old cousin was killed here. She had come to the supermarket to buy champagne to celebrate the one-year-anniversary of the relationship with her boyfriend.
They have been periodically turning off all their equipment and asking the families of missing people to phone their relatives so they can pinpoint the ring tones in the debris.
Growing numbers of people are arriving at the scene to lay flowers and light candles in commemoration of the dead, the BBC's Damien McGuinness in Riga reports.
The cause of the collapse is still not clear, but it is thought that the weight of soil - after heavy rains - caused the roof to cave in, our correspondent adds.
At least 40 people were injured and 33 are being treated in hospital.
The Latvian government has declared there will be three days of mourning, starting Saturday.
British pilot Paul Tribble, 27, was shopping in the store when the roof fell in.
"I was taken down by shelving falling on me, which skimmed my shoulder and forced me to the ground but I was still able to move," he told the BBC.
Mr Tribble said a crane had been loading sand and building materials onto the roof in recent weeks. He said he believed a lack of drainage following heavy rains had contributed to the fall.
Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis, who visited the scene on Friday, said a criminal process had begun about "violating building standards".
The initial collapse happened just before 18:00 (16:00 GMT) on Thursday, when the Maxima store was busy with customers.
About 20 minutes later another part of the roof caved in, trapping rescue workers who were trying to reach survivors.
Witnesses said customers tried to run out after the first part of the roof collapsed but the supermarket's electronic doors closed, trapping them inside.
Maxima board member Gintaras Jasinskas said 30 employees were in the store at the time, according to AFP news agency.
He was quoted in local media saying he expressed his deep condolences to the families of the victims.
Local media said the building, rented by the Maxima chain, had been awarded a national architecture prize when it was completed in 2011.
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