BELGRADE: Eight people were killed and two hospitalized on Friday when a roof collapsed at the entrance to a railway station in the Serbian city of Novi Sad, the interior minister said.

Emergency services were using two large diggers into the evening to help free two more people who were alive but trapped under the rubble. Local television stations showed medical staff preparing stretchers nearby.

"It is an extremely difficult rescue operation that will last for several more hours. We have around 80 rescuers from several towns working and heavy machinery," Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said in a televised statement.

One of the people still trapped was a 14-year-old girl, Dacic added.

N1 news channel said train departures had been halted from the station, which lies about 70 km (40 miles) northwest of the capital, Belgrade.

"This is a black Friday for all of Serbia and Novi Sad," Prime Minister Milos Vucevic told reporters. "Regardless of the fact that this building was constructed in 1964, we will insist that those responsible for this tragedy are identified."

N1 said the building's reconstruction had been completed this summer, but that the part of the roof which collapsed had not been part of the reconstruction.