Seven Swiss fire-fighters were presumed dead today after they were trapped under the collapsed roof of a burning underground car park.
Rescuers worked frantically through the smoking rubble to locate the seven fire-fighters, trapped in the car park in the northern Swiss town of Gretzenbach.
"Of the seven persons, five have been located and show no signs of life, so we expect that they are dead," chief fire inspector Paul Haus said.
A police spokesman said that there was virtually no chance that the two fire-fighters who were still missing would be found alive.
"The chances are slipping constantly," the spokesman said.
All seven were thought to have suffocated.
The fire broke out in the morning in a residential car park in Gretzenbach, between the cities of Basel and Zurich.
The town fire department sent 11 fire-fighters into the blaze when the car park's concrete roof collapsed, police said.
Three were able to extract themselves and one was rescued and taken to hospital for smoke inhalation, the police statement said.
Rescuers were able to maintain radio contact with some of the trapped men for several hours after the collapse. Around 80 fire-fighters and construction experts aided by a rescue unit from the Swiss army rallied to the scene.
But hopes for their rescue began to fade when radio contact broke off.