After the house collapsed after an explosion in Hemer, Sauerland, the rescue operation began.
The rubble would now be cleared away to get to the two buried people with whom there is contact, a police spokeswoman said late Friday evening.
Two people are still under the rubble of the collapsed apartment building.
Several people were injured.
In addition, three of the eight residents are still missing.
One person was seriously but not fatally injured, three others were slightly injured.
Pictures showed that all that was left of the collapsed house was a mountain of rubble.
"Unfortunately, it collapsed completely, there is no stone left standing," said the spokesman for the Hemer fire brigade in a post on the news portal "Lokalstimme.de".
According to the police, the exact cause of the explosion was initially unclear, but it was probably a gas explosion.
The surrounding houses would be evacuated, the police said.
The area around the scene of the accident was cordoned off.
According to the fire department spokesman, six people are officially registered as residents in the multi-party building, and a total of eight would live there.
It was unclear how many were in the house at the time of the accident.
The rescue measures were therefore difficult, according to the police, an excavator was used to move the debris.
Hemer is located near Iserlohn in the Märkisches Kreis.