At Least Two Dead After Explosion at Residential Building in Regensburg, Germany
An explosion destroyed part of a residential building in the southern German city of Regensburg, and two bodies have been found in the rubble. The cause is unknown and police are investigating.
A powerful explosion in a residential building in Regensburg, a city in southern Germany, has killed at least two people, the German news agency dpa reported. It remains unclear whether the blast was an accident or deliberate.
What happened
The explosion occurred early on Wednesday morning and destroyed a significant part of the building. Four people were taken to hospital, one of them with serious injuries. A police officer also suffered smoke poisoning.
Search and recovery
On Thursday, emergency services found two bodies at the scene. Several hours after the body of a man was discovered on Thursday afternoon, another was found among the debris, a police spokesperson said. According to police, this man is believed to be one of two people previously reported missing. The identity of the second victim has not yet been established.
Rescuers were able to enter the building on Thursday morning, after Germany's Federal Agency for Technical Relief finished safety work intended to prevent the structure from collapsing.
Similar incidents
Earlier this year, in May, a suspected gas explosion in a building with tourist apartments in the German city of Görlitz, near the Polish border, killed three people. Several floors of the late 19th or early 20th century building near the railway station collapsed.
On 21 October, an explosion in the centre of the Greek capital injured two police officers and two passers-by.
