Probes into airport roof collapse
 |  Authorities evacuated the terminal, which opened 11 months ago. |
| |
|  VIDEO |
 Tragedy at a new passenger terminal at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.
|
RELATED |
• Search for flaws amid debris
|
|
PARIS, France -- French President Jacques Chirac is calling for a swift investigation into a roof collapse at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport.
French fire marshalls have lowered the death toll from five to four but haven't ruled out the possibility of finding more victims in the rubble.
Another three people were slightly injured when a massive section of a vaulted ceiling came crashing down Sunday.
Separate criminal and technical investigations have been ordered.
Meanwhile, rescue teams were planning to use sniffer dogs to continue the search Monday for survivors or more dead bodies.
Officials said Sunday a thorough technical investigation will examine the structure to determine how the collapse came about.
A separate inquiry will look at whether criminal charges should be laid over the deaths which resulted.
Slabs of concrete and metal came crashing down from the ceiling onto a seated waiting area at about 7 a.m. Sunday (0500 GMT).
Part of the raised terminal structure then collapsed onto airport service vehicles underneath.
The collapse left a hole 50 meters (yards) by 30 meters in the long, tunnel-like building.
"It's like a scene after an earthquake," one firefighter said.
Officials said there was nothing to indicate a terrorist attack.
Hundreds of rescue workers were rushed to the scene, and temporary hospitals were set up on the tarmac and inside the terminal.
Hubert de Mesnil, director general of Paris airports, said all the dead were likely passengers, The Associated Press reported.
De Mesnil said there was "absolutely nothing" in the past to indicate a structural problem.
"It's the structure that gave way, the structure itself," he told reporters.
"Luckily there was not too much traffic at the time of the incident," Michel Sapin, prefect of the local St. Denis community, told reporters at the airport.
Sapin said planes were arriving from the United States and Johannesburg and one was leaving for Prague at the time.
One of the injured was Chinese and another was from Ivory Coast, he said.
"It looks pretty bad out there," said Amy Haight, 30, arriving from Houston with her husband, Nelson, for a friend's wedding.
She said she saw the collapsed building and dozens of rescue vehicles as her plane landed.
"It's so sad, it's so scary. My God, we're so lucky," AP quoted her as saying.
A loud noise precipitated a crack in the terminal ceiling, and officials had been evacuating the area when the roof caved in.
"Some people heard cracks before the accident and there was concrete dust coming from the ceiling," said Paris airport authority chairman Pierre Graff.
"This was a very prestigious hall and it's a very hard day for us today."
One airport director had called Terminal 2E, with its arched roof and sleek design, the "pride of the airport."
The terminal was inaugurated June 25, nearly a month behind schedule because of construction problems.
Authorities evacuated the terminal, which is used by national carrier Air France and several other international airlines. It is one of eight terminals and handled around 60 flights a day using 17 docking stations
"We will adapt our flights depending on how long the terminal is closed. Today it is not too problematic as flight arrivals and departures are being pushed onto other terminals," Air France spokesman Jean-Claude Couturier said.
CNN Correspondent Jim Bittermann contributed to this report
Copyright 2004 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
