Belgrade  -  Serbian authorities arrested 11 people, including a former minister, on Thursday as part of a probe into a train station accident that killed 15 people, prosecutors said.

There have been protests and anger nationwide over the collapse on November 1 of a concrete roof at the station in Novi Sad -- which followed lengthy renovation work on the facility.

Many are blaming the deaths in the northern city on rampant corruption and lax oversight of construction projects.

The Novi Sad public prosecutor’s office said 11 people -- who it identified only by their initials -- had been arrested on its orders. Prosecutors “collected and thoroughly analysed all the necessary documents, conducted interviews with a large number of people and received an analysis aimed at determining the causes and circumstances of the collapse”, the office said.

Among those arrested is former construction minister Goran Vesic, who resigned a few days after the accident, local media reported. Vesic argued he was not arrested but that he “voluntarily responded” to a request from police.