Rescuers work at the wreckage of the collapsed market in Moscow on Feb. 23. At least 31 people were killed when the roof over a market in Moscow collapsed early Thursday. (Xinhua/AFP photo)

    MOSCOW, Feb. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- At least 31 people have been found dead and 29 injured by rescuers digging through the wreckage of a roof which collapsed under the weight of snow in a Moscow market on Thursday.

    Emergency officials said it was unclear how many people were in the market when the roof caved in at around 5:45 a.m. (0245 GMT). Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov, quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency, said at least 31 people were killed and 29 others were injured.

    Rescue workers at the scene earlier spoke of some 40 people still trapped in the rubble. Many of the market's business owners come from Central Asia.

    Police have sealed off the streets leading to the market, which has been reduced to ruin. Ambulances, bulldozers and cranes were standing by as rescuers with sniffer dogs cut through concrete blocks and metal beams to extract survivors.

At least 31 people were killed when the roof over a market in Moscow collapsed early Thursday. (Xinhua/AFP photo)

    Some of those in the ruins were using mobile phones to help rescuers locate them. Rescuers also cut power transmission lines over the market to prepare for work by cranes.

    Nearby, families of those doing business in the market waited anxiously for word on the fate of their loved ones, many of them sobbing.

    A woman in her fifties told Xinhua she had desperately been trying to make contact with her younger sister who had been inside the building when the roof collapsed.

Rescuers pull an injured man out the wreckage of the collapsed market in Moscow, Feb. 23. (Xinhua/AFP photo)

    Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu, who was overseeing rescue work at the scene, said contact had been made with 10 people still alive under the debris. "They knocked, called back, and rescuers are now coming to them," he said.

    The city has established a helpline to provide information on rescue work.

    Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov told reporters at the scene there was no evidence that the collapse was an act of terror. Officials said heavy snowfall overnight as well as design flaws might be to blamefor the collapse.

    The market was built some 30 years ago. The roof covers an area of 2,000-3,000 square meters in the eastern Moscow district of Baumanskaya.

    Itar-Tass said the market was designed by Nodar Kancheli, the same designer of the Transvaal water park whose roof collapsed in February 2004 killing 28 people and injuring more than 100. Enditem